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[FYI] How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet



<http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr116.pdf>


Gabriel Weimann www.terror.net

How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet  

Summary   

• The great virtues of the Internet — ease of access, lack of 
regulation, vast potential audiences, and fast flow of information, 
among others — have been turned to the advantage of groups committed 
to terrorizing societies to achieve their goals.   

• Today, all active terrorist groups have established their presence 
on the Internet. Our scan of the Internet in 2003–4 revealed hundreds 
of websites serving terrorists and their supporters.   

• Terrorism on the Internet is a very dynamic phenomenon: websites 
suddenly emerge, frequently modify their formats, and then swiftly 
disappear—or, in many cases, seem to disappear by changing their 
online address but retaining much the same content.   

• Terrorist websites target three different audiences: current and 
potential supporters; international public opinion; and enemy 
publics.   

• The mass media, policymakers, and even security agencies have 
tended to focus on the exaggerated threat of cyberterrorism and paid 
insufficient attention to the more routine uses made of the Internet. 
Those uses are numerous and, from the terrorists’ perspective, 
invaluable.   

• There are eight different ways in which contemporary terrorists use 
the Internet, ranging from psychological warfare and propaganda to 
highly instrumental uses such as fundraising, recruitment, data 
mining, and coordination of actions.   

• While we must better defend our societies against cyberterrorism 
and Internet-savvy terrorists, we should also consider the costs of 
applying counterterrorism measures to the Internet. Such measures can 
hand authoritarian governments and agencies with little public 
accountability tools with which to violate privacy, curtail the free 
flow of information, and restrict freedom of expression, thus adding 
a heavy price in terms of diminished civil liberties to the high toll 
exacted by terrorism itself.   

www.usip.org   

1200 17th Street NW • Washington, DC 20036 • 202.457.1700 • fax 
202.429.6063   




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