A recent Senate Senate Intelligence committee report noted that violent terrorist extremists groups like al-Qa’ida, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have demonstrated that they can successfully use the Internet to recruit, train, radicalize, fundraise and inspire attacks. The report also notes how the US government, particularly the intelligence community must do more to fight against this kind of propaganda online.
The report notes that through popular public websites, video sharing and social networking sites, terrorists can spread their violent extremism and hate filled ideology and misleading information online very effectively. This is having the effect in many cases of diminishing the effectiveness of U.S. Government campaigns to counter extremist content online.
The report says:
“The Committee believes that the U.S. Government as a whole, and in particular the Intelligence Community, must improve its efforts to understand the full scope of terrorist groups’ messaging campaigns and communications methods online.
These efforts will not be confined solely to intelligence analysts; operational personnel, including intelligence and defense officials, must be aware of how terrorist groups make use of open source messaging.
The Director of National Intelligence and the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence will jointly brief the congressional intelligence committees on a plan for improving the use of open source information throughout the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense (DoD), including the U.S. Special Operations Command.
The plan should include: (1) ways to expand research and development in the use of publicly available information in relevant Intelligence Community and DoD elements, including any commercially available tools and solutions; (2) a strategy for how the Intelligence Community and the DoD can more effectively work with private industry and non-governmental organizations to gather, store, and analyze publicly available information; and (3) a description of training and guidance available to Intelligence Community and DoD personnel, including non-analytic personnel, with respect to the use and analysis of publicly available information.”
Source: Congressional Record Committee Report 11 of 12 – House Report 114-144 – Part 1 Committee Intent, Classified Annex- INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2016
See related video: Can We Fight ISIS on the Internet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6_hyFQUNLo
Note: France is leading an effort to counter jihadist propaganda online.
See video: Stop-Djihadisme : Ils te dissent… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke3i9-7kkQM
The following commercial is airing on Arabic channels to dissuade people from becoming suicide bombers.
See video: Anti-Suicide Bomb Commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AIjGchpYGM
Videos aimed at children: Anti suicide bombing in English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD4UdT9m5o0 , in Somali https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beY0eKwBXKE
What do you think happens to suicide bombers in hell – Do you want to die eternally? Eternal in Hell Boko Haram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG99MOJzZZY
There have also been some notable efforts by some leaders in the Islamic community to counter terrorism in the name of Islam
See video: FATWA Against Terrorism and Suicide Bombing by Shaykh ul Islam Dr.Muhammad Tahir ul Qadri https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th_Vu6vPDT0