Extremism and the Role of Social Media
By: Basmah Abdullah Zahid
Tags: News, Social Media, Opinion, Terrorism

The evolving nature of digital technology provides the Internet and an exciting Social Media that connects people all around the World. Social Media is a platform through which we disseminate and receive information or news. However, according to Guo- Ming Chen (2012), social media or new media has brought human interaction and even complex level of connections[1]. Today, Social Media is the biggest source of information, everything is just a click away.

Social Media usage has increased with the passage of time, as a Scholar mentioned in a research article that today in 21st century people and organizations are connected and updated through various Social Media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or many more[2]. Social Media stands on four pillars; Communication, Engagement, Faith and Transparency — it’s also quick, inexpensive and accessible without any limitation/ restriction[3].

A research author mentioned that the advancement of technology and social media have a strong positive and negative impact on societies.(Research 6)[4]. In other words social media has become embedded in today’s world, which result in major societal changes. An author of a book highlighted that social media influences every sphere of societies[5]. The Internet provides a wide range of platforms to human beings to stay connected and updated like Blogs, Video Blogging, Wikipedia, Websites, Social Networking Sites like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, SnapChat and much more. The options are unlimited to receive or disseminate information, news, thoughts, ideas and opinions, that’s why social media is deeply embedded in our societies. Mangold and Faulds (2009) mentioned that Social Media has influenced and contributed in many aspects of human’s behavior in relation to how information is received and even consumer attitudes towards a product or service[6].

Social Media usage is increasing in Pakistan day by day. As Ejaz Abida (2013) quoted that people in Pakistan use social media platforms for sharing breaking news and to motivate people for different campaigns[7] whether it’s Rape cases or Extremism. As it’s an era of communication every human being, brands or organizations are socializing now a days to stand out on these platforms for several reasons. An author pointed out that today in 21st century everyone have access to a huge variety of thoughts, ideas and options, he also mentioned that everyone out there has something to share[8].

Social Media platforms are also becoming a source of public discourse — defined as: “speeches, publications and other statements made in pursuit of the public good”, there are three dimensions for public discourses; use of language, communication and interaction during social situations[9].

Social media has introduced new communication practices, which provides public a platform to communicate on a larger scale. As compared to traditional media, social networking sites are broadening the public communication[10], they are providing a public discourse. The power of social media has boost the public discourse that today, anyone can affect change, mobilize a community & gather a bunch of information in different forms like videos, images or text.

Social media had radically changed the consumption of information and news, the most popular platforms are Facebook and Twitter, through which consumers are receiving and sharing all the informative data[11].

Social media is playing a strong role in shaping public’s perspectives/opinions and its users are gradually increasing in Pakistan. According to the statistics of 2016 (conducted by social networking companies), in Pakistan, about 44 million users have access to social networking sites. While, only Twitter has 3.1 million and 0.4 million users as of July 2016 and January 2016, respectively[12].

The advancement of technology has made people’s life easier because Internet, WiFi and New Media are easily reachable and accessible. As discussed above, social media has the power of changing minds and perspectives. It’s also a source of positive and negative propaganda, as scholar mentioned that people can easily create effectual campaigns, to create a propaganda[13]. Social Media networks are used for several purposes like to create a propaganda, for psychological warfare, for fundraising, to create effective campaigns, for gathering information, for mobilization and formation of people’s perspectives and many others.

The advancement of technology has also helped the terrorist organizations in a way that they have shifted their propaganda from traditional media to new media. Prof. Gabriel Weimann conducted a study in which he mentioned that about 90% of terrorist organizations on the Internet, especially through the Social media[14], but how social media is beneficial for terrorist organizations and how they are spreading extremism all around the World? Prof. Gabriel Weimann further discovered that terrorists are using these social media tools to reach a larger group of audience without any geographical limitation[15]. Many scholars and authors have described in many research articles that how terrorist organizations are using social networking sites for multiple reasons — such as to create propaganda, psychological warfare, for transferring information and collecting data, to collect funds, for recruitment, and for the sake of mobilization[16]. Terrorists/Extremists are utilizing social media platforms for recruitment, operational planning and engaging with audience (Thomas, 2003; Mishra, 2003; Rogan, 2006, Conway, 2005; Aly, 2016; Klausen, 2015; Conway, 2016)[17] to create terror and panic among people all around the globe. However, emergence of social media platforms has changed the communication process and providing everyone a platform to write about their thoughts, ideas, and plans. These social media tools have given access to immediate information, the news is always knocking on our screens whether it is laptops, smartphones, or tablets. That’s why the impact of terrorist/extremist is leaving a mark of black propaganda. Black Propaganda describe as: “ Black propaganda is when the source is concealed or credited to a false authority and spreads lies, fabrications, and deceptions. Black propaganda is the “big lie,” including all types of creative deception”[18]. Broadly, terrorists/extremists present false and fabricated messages based on text, videos or audios to spread terror.

The Internet and Social media platforms are providing people a two-way communication through different features like status or tweets, videos, chats, images, live streaming or live chats. These tools are effectively in use of terrorist groups to spread fear or terror, to execute their plans or campaigns, to advance their cause, to find more supporters, to spread their ideas or thoughts and to communicate on a larger scale. The main purpose of using social media is to create Propaganda.

Weimann & Jost enlightened that terrorist groups/organizations are using social media platforms for recruitment and to create propaganda because they can manipulate public’s mind to consume their desire context[19]. An author while studying the Impact of Social Media find out how terrorists and extremists are using social media for:

· Propaganda

· Radicalization

· Data Mining

· Recruitment

· Planning

· Training

· Networking

· Communication

The network of terrorist organizations are becoming stronger by the passage of time because of the easy access to social networking sites. However, the two famous terrorist organizations Al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq & Syria (ISIS) are escalating through social media networks and it’s a tool for recruiting new members for their organizations. During the panel discussion at Terrorism in the Digital Age at the 47th World Economic Forum, Former Army chief of Pakistan General Raheel Sharif said that “ Terrorists are using social media and digital platforms very effectively, including for recruitment”. He further added that “ Terrorism in the digital age, is dangerous as not only cancer but as deadly as cancer.”[20]

National Institute of Justice (2017) describes that Global terrorist movements are relying on modern communication technologies/tools and social media platforms to push their beliefs and point of view all around the World[21]. An author said in a research paper that with the evolving technologies, the terror and thread of extremism has been growing and these social media tools has been used to plan their attacks and for strengthening their beliefs and messages[22].

According to many scholars, the frequency of communication or interaction through social media is continuously increasing but social media is boon and bane at the same time[23], however, the terrorist organizations are receiving all benefits like operational digital action, recruitment, creating group forums, collaborating with terrorist associates, administering digital training environments, coordinating organizational activity and propagating terrorist organization material[24]. Extremists are utilizing the internet, social media or new media for cyber war too, as research scholar mentioned that one of the biggest terrorist organization ISIS are now increasingly fighting an online cyber war via video messages, online messages of hate and even an app[25].

Today’s media have four major responsibilities or functions which are to persuade, to present opinion, to inform, to entertain and to regulate. Though, terrorist organizations are using a symbolic communication functions that consists of four different pieces of a communication formula, to achieve their goals, the communication functions are:

· transmission of the information.

· disseminating of messages via different platforms.

· targeting wide audience.

· and the feedback, or the response of the audience[26].

Many scholars mentioned multiple times in different dissertations that today social media is considered a ‘tool of terrorism’[27] and they are spreading fear, terror and extremism. Terrorists now know how to use social media and how to use advance tools. A major example is ‘the Christchurch Mosque attacks’, the worst mass shootings in the terrorism history. On 15th of March 2019, an Australian national gunman who had stormed two Christchurch mosques, killing 50 people and wounding as many more (another died later on). The extremist emailed a 74-page manifesto to politicians and newsrooms just before the attack, and he also broadcast live streaming on Facebook via a headcam he was wearing during the deadly shooting attack. The attacker had all the advance weapon and gadgets and his manifesto seems much clear that he wanted to spread terror among Muslim community. The live streaming of the attack had left terrible side effects on human psyche, those who witnessed and watched.

Previously there were many extremism attacks, political campaigns or natural disasters where Social Media played an important role for several purposes, as Shedy (2011) mentioned that world witnessed social media’s significant role during:

· 2008 Mumbai Attack

· 2009 Iran’s Election Campaign

· 2010 Haiti Earthquake[28]

However, Former BBC Global News Director Richard Sambrook said during an interview that in today’s communication age Terrorism or Extremism is a totally ‘different beast’[29].

Gabriel Weimann defined that post- modern terrorism era are taking advantage of modern technology — especially advanced online communication tools[30]. Another scholar said that the weapons of extremist are not only guns and bombs — now these weapons include webcams, videotapes, CD — Roms, DVDs, laptops and all other smart gadgets (Hakami, 2011)[31].

As we all know that social media is a cheap and effective tool for mass communication, as well as an effective method for targeting key demographics[32]. Social media is becoming the biggest tool for cyber-attacks to create fear around the World, as a scholar discovered that ‘social media’ technologies provide for terrorists and militant extremists to utilise and develop cyber terrorism[33].

Extremism activities all around the world has approached the evolution of various high-ended methodologies for analyzing terrorist groups and networks and how to tackle all the advanced moves of theirs. Institutes and Counter — Terrorism department are working hard to control all the extremism, as research scholar mentioned that all the intelligence and law enforcement agencies are trying to understand the structure of terrorist networks and developing strategies to disrupt them by identifying leaders and hidden patterns in terrorist networks[34]. Terrorism groups and organizations are misusing the social media platforms, as a scholar mentioned in the research paper that Extremists are exploiting social media networking sites for terrible purposes[35]. As we know, Social Media has opened up new ways to communicate, network, plan and operate. In the 21st century Social media has fundamentally and permanently changed the platform for terrorist networking[36]. However, the way institutes investigate, understand and counter terrorist networks has also changed.

In an article the author claimed that militants have become extremely web-savvy and recognized the value of social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and MySpace to reaching out the like-minded people[37]. Social Media and

Terrorism is becoming a dangerous symbiosis and these extremism organizations are becoming stronger in their manifesto, but many countries are trying to fight against extremism those countries are Pakistan, Syria, Sri Lanka, Paris, New Zealand and many other countries.

As in Pakistan the social media users are rapidly increasing, the people in Pakistan are using social networking sites for hate speech, for running campaigns whether it’s for positive cause or negative cause and for raising awareness about different issues. Pakistani Social Media has played a vital positive role in different terrorist attacks and the country also witnessed that how terrorists/extremists are using social media for communication and to plan their targets. Those terrorist events are as follows:

· (Karachi) Jinnah International Airport Attack →2014, June 8.

· Peshawar Army Public School attack → 2014, December 16.

· Police Academy Attack in Quetta→2016, October 25.

· Quetta Suicide Bombing→2020, February 19.

· Pakistan Stock Exchange attack →2020, June 29.

There are many more attacks in which our country experienced the strong connection between social media, public, media personals and terrorist attacks. The law enforcement agency ISI and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) have been taking action against those social media pages that contain hate speech, terror thread and sensitive content. According to an article, there are approximately 60 banned organizations in Pakistan, the country is trying hard to combat terrorist organizations online[38].

Pakistan’s Army along with the ISI are playing a strong role against ‘War on Terrorism’, Pakistan also presented the National Action Plan for countering terrorism and extremism which includes a ban on the glorification of terrorist groups in media, dismantling of terrorist communication networks, and measures against the abuse of the internet and social media for terrorism[39].

Pakistan is still fighting against these extremists and cyber-attacks, the unity among Government, Opposition and Military will help us to win the race. A scholar recommended in a research paper that if Government and Tech companies joined hands with each other so they can tackle and control the usage of Internet by terrorist organizations, the author further mentioned that “ South Asian countries need to clarify the scope of counter-extremism legislation and its applicability online, as well as clearly define hate speech and terrorist content.[40] “

The government of Pakistan is continuously planning out different tactics to control social media’s negative usage in the country, The “Citizens Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules, 2020” oblige social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google to block or remove posts that are considered objectionable by the government, however, this law is considered as ‘violation of freedom of speech’[41]. But these laws are important to control the spread of terror and misinformation.

Alongside these laws and regulation Pakistan Army has fought against terrorists and weakened the power of Al Qaeda, Pakistan Tahreek-e- Taliban and Daesh. A series of military operations — especially Zarb-e-Azb and subsequent Raddul Fassad — did pay off and led to successful results in reducing violence[42].

Globally, Pakistan is among the top 10 countries who faced the worst hit of terrorism, since 9/11 incident. The efforts of Pakistan are appreciable all around the globe. Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and his Jawans are decisive against terrorism to achieve enduring peace both in the country and in the region.