Islamist Militants on the Internet
ABSTRACT
The problem of online radicalisation is at the nexus of two key trends: the democratisation of communications driven by user generated content on the Internet; and the democratisation of strategic violence driven by mass-casualty non-state terrorism. How can governments capitalise on the first trend to counter the second?
This article makes the case that challenging Islamist militant radicalisation and recruitment at the point of dissemination on the Internet should be a very high counterterrorism priority. However, the “user driven revolution” in Internet communications in the past three years has empowered militants, and reduced government’s ability to directly control communications on the Internet. Accordingly, this article advocates a user driven strategy to tackle radicalisation in the chat rooms and web forums where government is increasingly unable to reach.
AUTHORS
Institute of International and European Affairs, Dublin
Ireland
Johnny Ryan is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of International and European Affairs. He recently published a book on this subject Countering Militant Islamist Radicalisation on the Internet: a user driven strategy to recover the web, Institute of International and European Affairs, Dublin.
Published In
Journal of Information Warfare
The definitive publication for the best and latest research and analysis on information warfare, information operations, and cyber crime. Available in traditional hard copy or online.
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