Social media and terrorism
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Transcript of Social media and terrorism
The terrorist is the contemporary outlaw
The figure outside of the law
Deserving of no protections
And yet they are all over Social Media.
Why?
What is the relationship between social media and terrorism?
Distribution – Daesh (ISIS), counter-Daesh
Ideology– Manifesto killers
DEFINITIONS OF TERRORISM
The Common Definition
One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter
The Common Definition
US Govt. 2001 definition
Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant* targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.
US Govt. 2001 definition
Or,
What looks, smells and kills like terrorism is terrorism
United Nations definition
The United Nations ability to develop a comprehensive strategy has been constrained by the inability of Member States to agree on an anti-terrorism convention including a definition of terrorism.
Scholarly definitionsSchmid, 2004:
many definitions
changed after 9/11
definition became racialised
Scholarly definitionsSchmid, provides a perfunctory definition:
“Terrorism is a politically motivated tactic involving the threat or use of force or violence in which the pursuit of publicity plays a significant role.”
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media TimelinesPre 9/11
1970s – BBS1988 – IRC services1995 – Geocities1996 – Adult FriendFinder, ICQ1997 – SixDegrees1999 – MSN Messenger2001 – Wikipedia
Post 9/11
2002 – Friendster, 2003 – MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo2004 – Facebook, Orkut2005 – YouTube 2006 – Twitter2007 – Tumblr2010 – disapora*2011 – Google+, increase in dating/sexting apps2014 – Ello
Pre 2001 Post 2001
Dialogue StatementsArguments Identity
DISTRIBUTION – DAESH
Daesh / ISISDaesh – middle eastern paramilitary organisation
Defintive contemporary image of a terrorist organisation
Al Qaeda Al Qaeda in Iraq ‘ISIS’
Warning: you may find this video disturbing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18lf1kpBgRk
Daesh – virality social media
Acts:Killing civilians and military personnel
Destruction of artifacts (iconoclasm)
Destroying musical equipment
Professionalisation/purpose
Daesh – musical instruments
Visually spectacular
Ties into existing rock music genre imagery
Semiotically and contextually unclear
Shared across all manner of online media
Daesh – artifactsEmotional
Iconoclastic
Again, visually spectacular
Why?
Daesh – actions and imagery
Daesh’s social media is highly redistributable
1)Lots of images2)High production values3)Evocative imagery4)Newsworthy5)Distributed across social media in
the first place
Jaysh al-Islām – ‘Revenge’ video
The ‘Witness’ - AgambenThe Witness is the person ‘next to’ the victim
The Witness must testify– i.e. Aylan Kurdi, Rezi Berati
Daesh uses social media to produce material that is testified to on social media
IDEOLOGY – THE MANIFESTO KILLERS
Manifesto
A document that calls people into radical political, social, or artistic purposes
Pushes for fundamental change in society
Pre-Social MediaDr. Ted Kaczynski “The Unabomber”
Industrial Society and Its Future
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold – Columbine High
AOL website hosting threats/agendasHitman for Hire
Elliot Rodger22 year old ‘Men’s Rights’ activist
My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger
2014 Isla Vistakillings
Dylann Roof21 year old white supremacist
lastrhodesian.com-- also Facebook
2015 Charleston Church Shootings
Rhodesia, Apartheid,Nazism
Anders Breivik32 year old white supremacist, publicly fascist
2083: A European Declaration of Independence
2011 Oslo & Utøya attacks
The ‘Hero’ – Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi
The Hero is the person who fights for a cause
So the Hero also needs to have a cause, but what if one does not exist?
The Hero creates a cause in the form of the manifesto, and distributes this online
In all cases the Hero must kill for their cause
SOCIAL MEDIA + TERRORISM
The ‘hero’ destroys lives and creates manifestos
The witness must observe and testify
Social media allows for wider attention & distribution locally and globally.
