2. “Arguably, the use of the Internet to radicalize and recruit
homegrown terrorists is the single most important
and dangerous novelty since the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001.”
BPC 2012 report, Countering Online Radicalization in America, p.47.
3. 1)How Online Radicalization Works
2)How To Reduce The Supply
3)How To Reduce The Demand
4)How To Exploit Cyberspace
5)Recommendations
4. How Online Radicalization Works
When explaining how online radicalism works, the BPC’s report states that
there are “six processes and dynamics that explain online radicalism”. The
first two of these processes are:
1) The online process in which individuals are “immersed in extremist
content for extended periods of time”and which “increases support for
suicide operations and other, often excessively brutal, terrorist tactics”.
2) The online process in which individuals view “the powerful and
(often) emotionally arousing videos from conflict zones” which depict
“alleged incidents of torture, rape, and other atrocities by Western
troops” which “can induce a sense of moral outrage” and trigger
“mobilization into violent action”.
7. What kind of Terrorist is this?
» Alfons R. of Hamburg, Germany
(shown in this undated photo),
converted to Islam at age 17.
Later,he went to Turkey, then
Syria, to join ISIS. He was killed
this past summer.
One of at least 60 Germans killed
fighting alongside ISIS militants,
nine of them in suicide attacks,
according to German authorities.
8. Reducing the Supply
The report’s recommendations are as follows:
• Government should refrain from establishing nationwide filtering
systems.
• Government needs to retain its capability for aggressive
takedowns of foreign-based websites but only use it when doing
so is absolutely essential to stop a terrorist attack and/or prevent
the loss of life.
• The circumstances and legal framework governing the use of
cyber-attacks need to be clarified.
• Prosecutions against violent extremist Internet entrepreneurs
need to weigh the chances of success against the unintended
consequence of drawing attention to their ideas and
propaganda.
• Government should accelerate the establishment of informal
partnerships to assist large Internet companies in understanding
national security threats as well as trends and patterns in
terrorist propaganda and communication.
9. Reducing the Demand
The report’s recommendations are as follows:
• Government, in partnership with community groups, needs to continue
to expand programs and initiatives that create awareness and spread
information about online radicalization among educators, parents, and
communities.
• Government should serve as an enabler, bringing together the private
sector, foundations, philanthropists, and community groups to build
capacity and to help potentially credible messengers such as
mainstream groups, victims of terrorism, and other stakeholders to
become more effective at conveying their messages. The forthcoming
Internet strategy should spell out what the government will do and how
success will be measured.
• The government’s Internet strategy also needs to make clear what part
of government will coordinate capacity building, engagement, and
outreach efforts as well as what resources will be made available to
support this task.
• The government should encourage school authorities to review and
update their curricula on media literacy, consider violent extremism as
part of their instruction on child-safety issues, and develop relevant
training resources for teachers.
10. Reducing the Supply Redux
• The Government Needs to Aggressively Take Down Terrorist
Websites by Spearheading a Definition of Terrorism which Can Be
Universally Accepted and Does Not Provide First Amendment
Protection
• The BPC’s report states that: “For reasons raging from the political to
the practical, approaches that are aimed at reducing the supply of
violent extremist content on the internet are neither feasible nor
desirable.”
• BPC 2012 report, Countering Online Radicalization in America, p.8.
However, the report does make one recommend that modifies that
view: Government needs to retain its capability for aggressive
takedowns of foreign-based websites but only use it when doing so is
absolutely essential to stop a terrorist attack and/or prevent the loss of
life. Ibid.
