by Yigal Carmon
To understand the magnitude of the threat and the measures required to address it, one must go back to the beginnings of the Internet and of social media.
Introduction
Social media companies are beginning to
lose advertising revenue due to the hateful content that appears on
their sites. According to reports, major advertisers (Johnson &
Johnson, Toyota, General Motors, Walmart, AT&T, HSBC, and others)
are pulling ads from social media platforms because they have found
their ads placed alongside terrorist videos. YouTube alone may find
itself losing $750,000,000 in ad revenue.[1]
It therefore seems as if financial considerations rather than moral
responsibility are prompting Internet companies to take more vigorous
measures to purge their platforms of hate speech and incitement to
murder.
Government pressure on the companies is
mounting as well. In Germany, Justice Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) is
introducing new legislation imposing huge fines of up to 50 million
Euros on companies that fail to remove hate speech from their sites. In
Britain after the recent Westminster terrorist attack, Home Secretary
Amber Rudd summoned executives from Google, Twitter, Facebook and
Microsoft to a summit at the Home Office, at which they agreed to
"create new technical tools to identify and remove terrorist propaganda"
from their platforms, among other measures.[2]
In addition, the families of terror
victims are beginning to sue Internet companies for carrying the
incitement that radicalized the terrorists and thus led to the killing
or injury of their loved ones. One successful lawsuit of this sort will
trigger a torrent of further lawsuits, entailing huge losses for the
companies.
But will any of this guarantee an Internet
free of hate speech and jihadi incitement? No. Not until both the
governments and the Internet companies understand that the use of the
Internet by jihadi movements poses a real threat to global security,
which amounts to an emergency situation requiring them to act
accordingly – namely, to make vast financial investments, to develop new
technologies, and, most importantly, to fundamentally change their
approach and the criteria they employ in removing content from the net.
The goals of this article are: first, to
present the scope of the problem; second, to demonstrate the inadequacy
of the measures taken to date to deal with it; third, to explain the
need for a revolutionary approach; and fourth, to present in detail the
components of a new, effective strategy to be implemented.
How Did It All Begin?
To understand the magnitude of the threat
and the measures required to address it, one must go back to the
beginnings of the Internet and of social media.
The Internet, just like nuclear energy and
other developments in modern technology, is both a blessing and a
source of danger. In most other fields, scientific and technological
developments were followed by regulatory legislation to head off
potential danger to society and to human life. Land, maritime, and
aerial transportation, the pharmaceutical industry, the food industry,
and an endless list of other industries and professions were all subject
to regulation.
The Internet companies, on the other hand,
enjoyed a climate of infinite license. Since they are based in the
U.S., with its almost unlimited free speech, the companies were
subjected to few restrictions, and, when challenged, have argued that
any further regulation of the information they carried would be an
unthinkable violation of the First Amendment.
Europe knew better. As a continent that
had been plunged into war due to the uninhibited rise of extremist
movements, it understood that not only extremist deeds but also
extremist speech and ideologies such as Nazism must be legally banned.
Following WWII, Europe legislated against racism, xenophobia,
anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, leading to the conviction and
penalizing of offenders. This helped keep the extremist blight and its
mass influence in check.
The Current Global Jihadi Movement Is Unimaginable Without The Internet
But even in Europe, all this changed with
the rise of the Internet. Internet companies worldwide exploited the
legislative vacuum in which the Internet existed to create a
supranational system that is above the law. A court could penalize the
likes of British Holocaust denier David Irving and French comedian and
political activist Dieudonné for anti-Semitic speech, but the material
that established their criminal culpability remained freely available on
the web to influence others. Extremist groups of all persuasions took
advantage of this situation, and online hate speech inciting jihad,
racism, xenophobia, and genocidal murder spread like a plague.
Online platforms filled with horrific
pictures of beheadings, crucifixions, amputations, burnings, drownings,
stonings, and other forms of execution.[3] Jihadi organizations used the web to recruit supporters and fighters,[4] provide practical instruction and manuals for terror operations including car bomb and ramming attacks,[5] make arch-terrorists into heroic models for emulation,[6] and raise funds for their activity.[7]
The Internet provided them with an ideal vehicle for spreading their
ideas, even to young children. Recently, ISIS schoolbooks, including
versions in English, written and used by the organization in its Syrian
stronghold of Al-Raqqa, were circulated online via the instant messaging
service Telegram – thus making globally available this crucial tool for
indoctrinating the younger generation.[8]
Terrorist groups' magazines and mouthpieces are also circulated online.
Furthermore, some social media provide encrypted platforms, which
enable the jihadis to share information safely.
Extremists on the right have entered the
fray as well, filling the Internet with their own hatred for minorities,
some even urging to follow the example of "Adolfetto" Hitler and
exterminate minority groups.[9]
However, most Internet companies have not
seemed to care much about this problem. Hundreds of companies all over
the U.S. have hosted terrorist organizations without knowing or caring
who their customers were. As for social networks, most of their founders
were young people largely devoid of historical consciousness. Focusing
on their grand vision of a global online community, they were oblivious
to the fact that they were also creating communities of terror and
transforming scattered terrorist groups into a global jihadi movement.
In the name of empowering people everywhere and giving a voice to each
and every individual, they also empowered the most vicious elements in
the global community – such as a jihadi who appeared on social media
holding up a severed head, calling out "Allah Akbar" and preaching jihad
and murder. Social media entrepreneurs continued developing this medium
without considering the dangers and the need to take measures against
them.
MEMRI's Efforts Vis-à-vis The Internet And Social Media Companies
MEMRI sounded the alarm about this
phenomenon as early as a decade ago at a bipartisan congressional
briefing co-hosted by the liberal Democrat representative from New York,
Gary Ackerman, and the conservative Republican congressman from
Indiana, Mike Pence. Both congratulated MEMRI on its initiative and
activity, and Ackerman harshly condemned the Internet companies as
"supporters of terrorism."[10]
Ever since, MEMRI has continued to warn
about terrorist use of the Internet. Over the years, MEMRI has amassed a
vast archive of materials on jihadis and jihad organizations, and its
Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor Project (JTTM) has published
countless reports demonstrating the Internet companies' reckless failure
to prevent incitement to genocidal murder.[11]
MEMRI has offered to place its expertise at the service of the
companies that host websites, free of charge, by reviewing websites they
were hosting and informing them about the jihadi organizations behind
them. In 2008, we also established a committee of prominent public
figures to inform the companies about these organizations.[12]
MEMRI has briefed Congress on the need to hold Internet companies
accountable, and even directly confronted some of the companies, such as
Google, to which we referred in our reports as "an online jihad base" –
resulting in a contentious meeting with them. MEMRI has also published
articles in the media warning about the vital need for the companies to
take responsibility.[13]
One of the most prevalent motifs in jihadi online incitement has been
the murderous incitement against Christian Copts. MEMRI has documented
this in countless reports.[14]
Over the years, there has been some
progress, especially after Members of Congress hinted at possible
legislative measures, and after investigations of terrorist attacks
confirmed the crucial role of the Internet in inspiring and radicalizing
the perpetrators. Facebook has pioneered a change for the better,
investing tens of millions of dollars in identifying and removing jihadi
accounts, and Twitter and Google/YouTube have begun following its
example.[15] But the measures the companies are taking are still inadequate for the scope of the threat.
The Invalid Excuses Of The Internet And Social Media Companies
It is important to review the excuses and
ploys used by Internet companies to justify their irresponsible conduct.
The first corporate ploy was to simply deny responsibility. "True,"
they said, "we supply the vehicle (and of course reap the revenues), but
somebody else provides the content, so direct your accusations at
them." While the terrorists should indeed be the prime target, the
companies act as their willing accomplices by making their platform
available for criminal use.
It should be mentioned that there is a
clear precedent for holding carriers of incitement responsible for the
results of that incitement. In the mid-1990s, the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda sentenced Ferdinand Nahimana, cofounder of the
Rwandan radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, to 30
years in prison for spreading incitement that contributed to the Rwanda
genocide. Obviously, I do not mean to compare Nahimana, who identified
with and sought to promote the genocidal messages on his radio, to the
magnates of social media, who are just demonstrating reckless
indifference, but only to stress the principle that carriers of
incitement can be held accountable for the consequences of that
incitement. This principle was in fact established after WWII, in the
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948,
which criminalizes not just the act of genocide but also "direct and
public incitement to commit genocide."[16]
In the U.S., too, a district court ruled
in 2006 that the First Amendment does not protect the right to
disseminate information meant to result in violence. This ruling came in
the case of radical animal rights and environmental activist Rodney
Adam Coronado, who taught others how to build bombs. "The First
Amendment does not provide a defense to a criminal charge simply because
the actor uses words [rather than actions] to carry out his illegal
purpose," the court stated.[17]
In fact, companies are well aware of their
responsibility to limit the use of their platforms, as evidenced by
their introduction of "community guidelines" and "terms of use" – which
they later used as their second tactical corporate excuse. "We are doing
what is necessary by establishing guidelines and community standards,"
they said.
This is the biggest deception of all.
First, the companies are clearly failing to enforce their own
guidelines, for had they enforced them, the Internet and social media
would not be so full of hate speech and incitement to murder. Moreover,
unlike companies that produce yogurt, cars, planes, or pharmaceuticals,
and that allow government regulators and even end users access to
information about their quality control departments and the experts and
technologies they use to safeguard the consumer, Internet companies keep
us completely in the dark. This information – access to which is an
essential right of consumers and government – is their closely guarded
secret. We have no idea how many experts they employ to remove hateful
content, how proficient they are in Arabic and other relevant languages,
what technological processes they use, or, most importantly, what
specific criteria they apply. In fact, Twitter noted recently that it
was identifying jihadi content using "internal, proprietary spam-fighting tools"[18] – a description that is a bad joke at the expense of innocent victims.
It is not even clear whether the screening
mechanisms that companies have pledged to develop are aimed at removing
hate speech and incitement. Google recently promised advertisers to
"provide simpler, more robust ways to stop their ads from showing
against controversial content,"[19]
thus implying that such content would be kept away from ads, but not
necessarily removed. Likewise, Facebook chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg
implied in a recent post that his network's ultimate goal is to let
users decide what content they will be spared from seeing, instead of
categorically removing certain types of content. "The idea," he wrote,
"is to give everyone in the community options for how they would like to
set the content policy for themselves. Where is your line on nudity? On
violence? On graphic content? On profanity? What you decide will be
your personal settings."
A third corporate dodge was to shift
responsibility onto users, an economic idea of absolute genius.
Complaints about online content were answered with "Did you flag it?"
Hundreds of millions of users were thus pressed into service as unpaid
corporate employees. Beyond the chutzpah involved, this method is also
ineffective, because flagging by users is only the first step of a
process which continues with referral to committees to validate the
flagging. These committees are part of an "internal" and "proprietary"
process we know nothing about – save for the fact that the material they
are supposed to remove remains online. MEMRI has repeatedly flagged
accounts of social media companies and reported on the results. Some
were removed; many were not.[20]
Finally, one of the companies' most
intellectually dishonest arguments is that they are actually assisting
law enforcement agencies. By allowing a free Internet, they say, they
enable intelligence agencies to discover and track murderous
conspiracies. The companies' argument was seconded by commercial
companies seeking to profit from the status quo, and by unscrupulous
academics.
This argument also fails because, as
noted, some companies, such as Telegram, offer encrypted services which
the terrorists gratefully use.[21]
Additionally and most importantly, even if a few terror cells have been
stopped thanks to a free Internet, the impact this has pales in
comparison to the online radicalization of generations of young people.
Moreover, the excuse of assisting intelligence bodies has never been
endorsed by senior intelligence officials, who have always made the
cost-benefit calculation that a free-to-incite Internet works to
society's detriment. They have not been fobbed off by netting small fry,
or even large fry, because they understood that this came at the price
of wholesale indoctrination of generations.
What Is Required To Achieve The Goal Of An Internet Free Of Hate Speech and Incitement To Murder
1. Understanding The Scope Of The Threat And The Need For A Revolutionary Approach To Counter It
The war against terror has always been
conceptualized as a battle against its violent manifestations. This
focus has become even stronger since ISIS established its territorial
base in Syria and Iraq. This terrorism, however, has ideological and
religious roots, and these roots have grown stronger and more widespread
since the Internet and social media companies have enabled them to use
their resources toward their goals. Thus, due to the Internet, terrorism
has evolved in recent years from isolated groups to a global
phenomenon. The West’s misguided perception of terrorism as a military
problem has led them to the belief that overcoming ISIS on the
battleground of Syria and Iraq will solve the problem and curb terrorism
in the West. However, the combination of the ideological and religious
roots with the unlimited power of the Internet will entail that the
defeat of ISIS in Syria and Iraq will lead to more –not less – terrorism
in the West.
It is a little-known fact that the
ideology of ISIS, in the early stages of its violent emergence, focused
on enemies within the Islamic world, such as other terrorist
organizations, Shi'ites, and others. ISIS represented an historic
attempt to recreate a territorial base for radical Islam (the
Caliphate). Fighting the West was not a priority. Indeed, this was the
major difference between ISIS and Al-Qaeda, with the latter focusing on
jihad against the West.[22] To this day, the ideology of ISIS is embodied in the call for hijra – immigration to the Caliphate – as the pinnacle of belief. Only those who cannot fulfill this call, because the gates of hijra have been closed by the West and because of the West's attacks on ISIS, are called upon to carry out operations in the West.[23]
Hence, once ISIS is defeated in Syria and Iraq, and deprived of its
territorial base altogether, the foreign fighters will return home and
will attack the West from within, with a vengeance. In this battle, the
Internet and the social media will play a major role in the recruitment
of Muslim communities in the West to this battle.
This is the reason that the West must
adopt a new, revolutionary approach to the role of the Internet and
social media, in order to put a stop to its enabling role.[24]
2. Regulating The Internet Through Legislation Is Crucial To Protect Human Lives
The first step in implementing this
revolutionary new approach should be the introduction of appropriate
legislation. Democratic countries resort to emergency legislative
measures in times of an existential threat to their freedom. Indeed,
Western democracies have instated emergency laws in the face of
terrorism in the past. Germany did so in 1977, following the
assassination of the director of the industrialists' association, Hanns
Martin Schleyer, by the Bader Meinhof terrorists. Italy did so following
the 1978 kidnapping and murder of former prime minister Aldo Moro by
the Red Brigades. France did so after bombs were placed by a local
Hizbullah gang in the capital's Galeries Lafayette and Place de l'Opera
in 1985–86. Canada went even further, reapplying the War Measures Act of
1942 to contend with a relatively minor terrorist organization, the
Quebec Liberation Front. The U.S. passed the PATRIOT Act following 9/11.
In all of this, legitimate freedom of
speech, which is at the heart of every democracy, must be protected.
This can be done, as there is no inherent contradiction between
preventing hate speech and incitement to murder and protecting freedom."
In Schenck v. United States (1919),
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes ruled that "the most
stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely
shouting 'fire' in a theater and causing a panic." This ruling was
effectively overturned by the Supreme Court in Brandenburg v. Ohio
(1969), which ruled that even inciting speech was protected in certain
cases. Today's use of the Internet as a vehicle for incitement, and the
global insecurity that this creates, mandates an updated ruling on the
limits of free speech. Sadly, to date no one has emerged from any of the
three branches of U.S. government to shoulder this responsibility and
protect innocent lives.
It should be stressed repeatedly that the
aim is not to undermine the principle of free speech but to impose
limits on hate speech and incitement to murder – lest we jeopardize the
future of democratic society worldwide. If humanist elements do not
assume this burden, they will be pushed aside by politically extreme
elements, which may curb freedoms with a vengeance to our collective
misfortune.
Such legislation would force the companies
and governments alike to take the necessary measures required to clean
up the Internet from inciting material.
3. Developing Technological Tools To Identify And Remove Inciteful Content
This goal poses an immense challenge. The
problem facing the Internet companies is the same as the one facing
intelligence agencies: identifying the required information amid oceans
of online material. Even intelligence agencies, despite having the
necessary budgets, have not yet managed to develop a tool that does this
accurately and reliably. But the companies have an advantage over the
intelligence agencies, since they are the owners and developers of the
platforms. Ultimately, the best results would emerge from cooperation
between the companies and the governments of democratic countries, a
concept that at present seems inconceivable in the mindset of both, but
is crucial and, indeed, possible within the revolutionary approach
proposed here.
4. Recruiting A Sufficient Amount Of Manpower
The solution to the problem of jihadi
online incitement is not conditional upon developing technological tools
– not to mention the fact that such development takes time and that we
are in need of an immediate solution. That solution lies primarily in
the recruitment of sufficient manpower – tens of thousands, or perhaps
even hundreds of thousands of people.
No matter how advanced, the artificial
intelligence on which the companies pin their hopes to identify
inciteful content will never be able to do so without sufficient
manpower, because it has no capacity for moral judgment and value-based
decisions. As a result, it not only fails to remove inciteful content,
but also – and embarrassingly – removes content that should remain.
Anyone who believes that recruiting
sufficient manpower would entail too great an expense upon any single
company should recall that the revenues of Facebook alone in 2016
reached $27.6 billion. Thus, only a tenth of the companies’ revenues
would suffice for such recruitment. Indeed, there is a precedent for
this, in the case of Volkswagen, which, in 2016, had to invest almost
$15 billion to deal with its dangerous diesel emissions.
Moreover, since this is a problem shared
by all Internet companies, they could pool their resources to meet a
significant part of the challenge.[25] If governments are also required to invest in a solution, it becomes clear that the burden is not at all insurmountable.
5. Expertise In The World Of Jihad
Identification of inciteful material is
often not easy. Regular employees cannot be expected to have the
necessary expertise in this field. The companies need professionals in
the world of jihad to direct those employees and answer their questions.
This expertise exists both in governments and in a handful of
organizations in the private sector, and the companies need to receive
this expertise, as well as develop their own.
6. Changing The Criteria For Identifying And Removing Jihadi Content
However, none of the above measures will
be sufficient unless the criteria and guidelines for removing content
are changed in a revolutionary manner. One crucial element that is
missing in the current guidelines is specificity. Democratic countries
designate certain organizations as criminal via judicial channels, but
the Internet companies do not name these organizations in their
guidelines, and in fact do not even seem to consider themselves bound by
these designations. Importantly, their terms of use fail to ban
particular organizations, people, publications, ideological motifs and
messages, and so on. They use only very general and vague terms,
referring to content that is "upsetting," "offensive," or "abusive."
Even the term "terrorist" is ambiguous without specifically mentioning
to whom and to what it refers. Moreover, in some cases, the terms of
service include convoluted legal terminology incomprehensible to the
layman. Given such guidelines, personnel who vet content – regardless of
their numbers – will find it difficult to make principled decisions.
Content removal must be based upon the
above-mentioned specifics, as well as on clearly defined moral
principles that distinguish between good and evil and between use and
abuse. These are the same principles that underpinned post-WWII
legislation criminalizing Holocaust denial and incitement to genocide,
the conviction of the Rwandan inciters, and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. If Internet companies had applied them, the Internet
would be much cleaner and safer today.
The companies' obligation to protect
society from those who use their platform to harm others is compromised
by their desire to provide every member of the human race with a
platform to voice their opinion and their urge to foster a maximally
inclusive community of users.
Is This Strategy Realistic?
Clearly, there is no magic wand that will
completely solve the problem of online jihadi incitement. Clearly, no
strategy can be 100% successful in achieving its goals. Judging a
strategy by such standards is generally a ploy to dismiss efforts to
develop the necessary measures. If the strategy proposed is successful
in removing even 80% of the jihadi incitement on the Internet, this will
constitute a huge contribution to mankind.[26]
In recent years, the companies are
proceeding, even if grudgingly, to remove jihadi content. But all their
activity is simply not addressing the scope of the problem. Global jihad
has taken on unimaginable proportions, mostly thanks to the Internet.
Only a revolutionary change, as described above, can yield significant
results.
But is it realistic?
Who ever thought that there would be security measures in air transportation, for example, that have such immense costs, that infringe upon personal
liberties, that disrupt the economy, and that take a toll on normal
life. But it became reality, because it was clear to all that the
sanctity of human life overrides other considerations.
Years ago, no one could imagine a scenario
in which armed soldiers patrol the streets of some European capitals,
and people going about their daily business are subject to security
checks in shopping malls, museums, banks, and other public institutions.
Just a few years ago, this would have been considered a gross violation
of one’s personal liberties. Now, however, we accept this as a fact of
life.
The infringements we face in Western
democracies will only grow in the future, to the point that we will be
living in what some might consider a police state.[27]
People's acceptance of infringements upon their lives is directly
proportionate to the extent of the threat. What all the defensive
measures employed against terrorism have in common is that they contend
with terrorism at its point of implementation. None of them can deal
with terrorism at its source.
Purging the Internet of jihadi content, on
the other hand, can deal with terrorism at its source, and can have an
immediate impact on recruitment, indoctrination, and training of
terrorists. This will significantly reduce the threat – which will, in
turn, enable Western democracies to reduce the degree of infringement
upon our liberties, freedoms, and daily life.
This is why the strategy proposed here is urgent, possible, and realistic.
APPENDIX: CIVIC ACTION FOR A JIHAD-FREE INTERNET (CAJFI)
The text below was compiled in 2008.
MEMRI
is preparing the launch of the Civic Action for a Jihad-Free Internet
(CAJFI) initiative. MEMRI will inform ISPs about the jihadist material
they are hosting and promoting, and a committee of high-level
distinguished personalities will advise them to remove it. In our
experience, the ISPs – who have no idea who and what they are hosting –
are ready to remove them when informed of the content. ISPs have
negligible financial incentives to host these websites. The committee
can be seen in the image. The committee will also be joined by Nobel
Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, and others. In addition to the committee’s
influential figures, we will also approach members of the Internet
industry, many of whom welcome such an initiative as a way to avoid
government regulation or lawsuits as a result of terrorist acts against
Americans found to be inspired by online jihadist materials. The civic
action initiative can be used in the future to also remove Islamophobic
and antisemitic material from the Internet.
It would be
wonderful if the Internet companies devoted some of their massive
profits towards ensuring a clean net, thereby complementing their
contribution to humanity with the measures necessary to prevent the
built-in harm.
*
Yigal Carmon, President and Founder of MEMRI, served between 1988–1993
as Advisor on Countering Terrorism to two Israeli prime ministers,
Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.
[1] Independent.co.uk, March 27, 2017.
[2] Telegraph.co.uk, March 31, 2017.
[3] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 4558, Warning: Extremely Disturbing Images. Woman Stoned to Death by ISIS in Syria, October 20, 2014; Inquiry & Analysis No. 1218, ISIS's
Use Of Twitter, Other U.S. Social Media To Disseminate Images, Videos
Of Islamic Religious Punishments – Beheading, Crucifixion, Stoning,
Burning, Drowning, Throwing From Buildings – Free Speech? (WARNING:
EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT, January 6, 2016; MEMRI JTTM report On Instagram; Hints At Joining ISIS, Threatens To Kill Instagram Employees, July 27, 2016.
[4] See MEMRI JTTM report On Facebook, American Recruiter For ISIS Provides Updates From Syria; His Recent Recruits Include An American, August 23, 2016; MEMRI JTTM report Jihadi How-To: Using Facebook To Attract ISIS Supporters, February 24, 2016; MEMRI JTTM report French Speaking ISIS Media Activist Urges Muslims To Join ISIS In Sinai, March 15, 2017; See MEMRI JTTM report Article
In ISIS Weekly Newspaper Praises 'Heroes' Living In 'Land Of Unbelief,'
Stresses Importance Of Attacks In Exhausting Enemy Economies, January 5, 2017; MEMRI JTTM report ISIS Releases First Issue Of 'Rumiyah' - A New Magazine In Multiple Languages, September 5, 2016; MEMRI JTTM report On Facebook, American Recruiter For ISIS Provides Updates From Syria; His Recent Recruits Include An American, August 23, 2016; MEMRI JTTM report Jihadi How-To: Using Facebook To Attract ISIS Supporters, February 24, 2016; MEMRI JTTM report French Speaking ISIS Media Activist Urges Muslims To Join ISIS In Sinai, March 15, 2017.
[5] See MEMRI JTTM reports Al-Qaeda Media Arm Al-Sahab Releases Book Written In 2000 On Carrying Out Kidnapping Operations, February 10, 2017; MEMRI JTTM report Months Of Prior Warnings Regarding Terror Attacks Using Trucks, December 20, 2016. See MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 1291, Germany-Based
Encrypted Messaging App Telegram Emerges As Jihadis' Preferred
Communications Platform – Part V Of MEMRI Series: Encryption Technology
Embraced By ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Other Jihadis – September 2015-September
2016 and Germany-Based
Encrypted Messaging App Telegram Emerges As Jihadis' Preferred
Communications Platform – Part V Of MEMRI Series: Encryption Technology
Embraced By ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Other Jihadis – September 2015-September
2016: Section 2 – MEMRI Research Documents Jihadi Use Of Telegram, December 23, 2016; MEMRI JTTM report Fifth Issue of ISIS Magazine 'Rumiyah' Offers Operational Advice For The Use Of Arson As Terror Tactic, January 15, 2017; MEMRI JTTM report WARNING
- GRAPHIC: ISIS Video Features French Fighter Demonstrating Stabbing
Techniques On 'Agent Of The Crusader Coalition,' Provides Step-By-Step
Instruction On Bomb Making Using Acetone Peroxide, November 25, 2016; MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6186, Social Media As A Platform For Palestinian Incitement – Part II: Video Tutorials, Tips For Achieving More 'Effective' Attacks, October 14, 2015; MEMRI JTTM report ISIS Supporter Uses 'Linktree' On Instagram To Circulate ISIS Videos And Bomb-Making Instructions, February 14, 2017; MEMRI JTTM report French-Speaking ISIS Media Operatives Distribute Guides On Using Poison, Making Bombs, September 26, 2016; MEMRI JTTM report Issue
3 Of Islamic State Magazine 'Rumiyah' Instructs Lone Wolves On Use Of
Trucks To Target Outdoor Conventions, Markets, Parades, And Political
Rallies, November 10, 2016.
[6]See MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 902, MEMRI
Tests YouTube's Flagging Feature For Videos Of Yemeni-American Al-Qaeda
Leader Anwar Al-Awlaki, One Year After His Death – The Results: 111 Out
Of 127 Remain Active; November 30, 2012; No. 883, Testing
YouTube's 'Promotes Terrorism' Flagging Feature For Videos Of Osama Bin
Laden, 9/11, Al-Qaeda – The Results: 58 Of 100 Remain Active, September 11, 2012.
See MEMRI JTTM reports Issue 3 Of Islamic State Magazine 'Rumiyah' Eulogizes British Fighter, November 10, 2016; ISIS Posts Image Of British Former Gitmo Prisoner Who Carried Out Martyrdom Operation Near Mosul, February 20, 2017; Syria-Based Jihadi Group Commemorates Moroccan Fighter Who Lived In Spain, Was Obsessed With Soccer, December 16, 2016; New ISIS Song In French Longs For Death To Join The Ones "Never Deflowered By Man Nor Djinn," November 16, 2016; Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) Releases Music Video Glorifying Dead Fighters And Self-Sacrifice In Jihad, October 26, 2016; Inquiry & Analysis No. 1130, SoundCloud,
World’s Second Biggest Streaming Music Service, Now Infested By Jihadis
Sharing Al-Qaeda And Islamic State (ISIS) Content: From Al-Awlaki, Bin
Laden Audio And Sermons To Al-Baghdadi, Nasheeds Espousing Jihad And
Martyrdom, November 6, 2014; Inquiry & Analysis No. 755, Deleting
Online Jihad on Twitter: The Case of British Jihadi Anjem Choudary –
Tweeting for the Caliphate and the Conquest of the White House, November 3, 2011.
[7] See MEMRI JTTM reports Fundraising Campaign To Support Families Of 'Martyrs' And Procure Weapons In Gaza Continues On Telegram, March 31, 2017; Campaign To Arm Mujahideen In Gaza Continues Soliciting Donations Via Telegram, March 28, 2017; Gaza-Based Jihadi Group Relaunches 'Equip A Fighter' Fundraising Campaign On Twitter, Telegram, WhatsApp, March 10, 2017.
[8] See MEMRI JTTM reports ISIS Al-Raqqa Video Extols ISIS's Child Indoctrination, Features French ISIS Fighter And His Children, March 20, 2017; Intermediate ISIS English-Language Children's Textbook, Focuses On Muslim Leaders, Islam; Mentions Facebook, Twitter, February 07, 2017.
[9] Radio24.ilsole24ore.com/programma/lazanzara?refresh_ce=1.
[10] See MEMRI Capitol Hill Briefing, The Enemy Within: Where Are The Islamist/Jihadist Websites Hosted And What Can Be Done About It, July 19, 2007 and MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 374, The Enemy Within: Where Are the Islamist/Jihadist Websites Hosted, and What Can Be Done About It? July 23, 2007
[11] See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1136, From
Al-Qaeda To The Islamic State (ISIS), Jihadi Groups Engage in Cyber
Jihad: Beginning With 1980s Promotion Of Use Of 'Electronic
Technologies' Up To Today's Embrace Of Social Media To Attract A New
Jihadi Generation, November 19, 2014.
See MEMRI Daily Brief No. 54, The Facebook Model For Taking On Jihadist Groups Online, August 31, 2015; MEMRI Daily Brief No. 80, Twitter, Once Jihadis' No. 1 Social Media Platform, Attempting – For Now – To Purge Jihadi Content, , February 25, 2016; MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 1218, ISIS's
Use Of Twitter, Other U.S. Social Media To Disseminate Images, Videos
Of Islamic Religious Punishments – Beheading, Crucifixion, Stoning,
Burning, Drowning, Throwing From Buildings – Free Speech?January 6, 2016; MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 1042, On
Twitter, British Pro-Jihad Islamist Anjem Choudary – Whose Network Is
Regarded As 'Single Biggest Gateway To Terrorism' For European Fighters
in Syria – Incites To Violence And Jihad, Calls For Conquest Of West; In
Tweet, He Defends Opinion Expressed By Accused Islamist During His
Trial That U.K. Is 'A Theoretic & Practical Battlefield'December 13, 2013; Inquiry and Analysis No. 939, Faces Of Death: On Twitter, Jihadis Distribute Photos Of 'Martyrs' February 22, 2013; Inquiry and Analysis No. 849, HASHTAG #Jihad: Charting Jihadi-Terrorist Organizations' Use Of Twitter, June 21, 2012; Inquiry and Analysis No. 755, Deleting
Online Jihad on Twitter: The Case of British Jihadi Anjem Choudary –
Tweeting for the Caliphate and the Conquest of the White House, November 3, 2011; Inquiry and Analysis No. 948, Online Jihadis Embrace Instagram (Warning: Graphic Images), March 14, 2013; Inquiry and Analysis No. 1255, The
Jihadi Cycle On Content-Sharing Web Services 2009-2016 And The Case Of
Justpaste.it: Favored By ISIS, Al-Qaeda, And Other Jihadis For Posting
Content And Sharing It On Twitter - Jihadis Move To Their Own Platforms
(Manbar, Nashir, Alors.Ninja) But Then Return To Justpaste.it, June 6, 2016; Inquiry and Analysis No. 724, Al-Qaeda, Jihadis Infest the San Francisco, California-Based 'Internet Archive' Library, January 11, 2017; MEMRI JTTM report Snapchat App Used By Jihadi Fighters In Syria And Jihadi Supporters In The West, January 11, 2017; Inquiry and Analysis No. 769, YouTube
– The Primary and Rapidly Expanding Online Jihadi Base, Part VI:
Following Deaths of Bin Laden and Al-Awlaki, Jihadi Groups Continue To
Post Thousands of Videos, Provide Cyber Jihad Tools on YouTube; The Case
of 'Muslims Against Crusades', December 5, 2011; Part
V: YouTube - The Internet's Primary and Rapidly Expanding Jihadi Base:
One Year Later on YouTube - Anwar Al-Awlaki's Presence Expands, Al-Qaeda
Goes Viral, Jihadists Post Thousands of Videos of Killing of U.S.
Troops; European Jihadists Also Embrace YouTube, December 17, 2010; YouTube
– The Internet's Primary and Rapidly Expanding Jihadi Base – Part III:
Despite Removal Efforts, Taliban YouTube Page Promising Terror Attacks
on U.S. Cities Remains Active, December 17, 2010; YouTube
- The Internet's Primary and Rapidly Expanding Jihadi Base - Part IV:
Young American YouTube Follower of Anwar Al-Awlaki on the Ground Zero
Mosque and 9/11: 'America Reaps What It Sows'; 'You Pretend Like the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon Was a Daycare Center or a Maternity
Ward; No - The World Trade Center Was the Epicenter of American Economy
That Funds So Much Death And Destruction... If the People Who Did 9/11
Wanted To Kill Innocent People, They Would Have Bombed a School...
Church... Daycare Center', August 27, 2010; YouTube – The Internet's Primary and Rapidly Expanding Jihadi Base: Part II, May 3, 2010; Deleting
Online Jihad and the Case of Anwar Al-Awlaki: Nearly Three Million
Viewings of Al-Awlaki's YouTube Videos – Included Would-Be Christmas
Airplane Bomber, Fort Hood Shooter, 7/7 London Bomber, and Would-Be Fort
Dix Bombers, December 30, 2009; Inquiry and Analysis No. 1033, MEMRI's
Behind-The-Scenes Role In Twitter's Shutdown Of Accounts Belonging To
Designated Terrorists: The Case Of Al-Qaeda Affiliate Al-Shabaab And The
Westgate Mall Attack, November 6, 2013; Inquiry & Analysis No. 1042, On
Twitter, British Pro-Jihad Islamist Anjem Choudary - Whose Network Is
Regarded As 'Single Biggest Gateway To Terrorism' For European Fighters
in Syria - Incites To Violence And Jihad, Calls For Conquest Of West; In
Tweet, He Defends Opinion Expressed By Accused Islamist During His
Trial That U.K. Is 'A Theoretic & Practical Battlefield,'December 13, 2013; Inquiry & Analysis No. 1162, As
Twitter Removes Some ISIS Accounts, Al-Qaeda's Branch In Syria Jabhat
Al-Nusra (JN) Thrives, Tweeting Jihad And Martyrdom To Over 200,000
Followers, May 20, 2017; Inquiry & Analysis Series No. 772 - Somali Al-Qaeda Affiliate Al-Shabaab Tweets Jihad and Martyrdom, December 13, 2011.
[12] See APPENDIX, this document.
[13] See for example a January 30, 2015 Forbes article, Terrorist Use Of U.S. Social Media Is A National Security Threat.
[14] See MEMRI JTTM report Article in ISIS Weekly Al-Naba' Threatens to Intensify Attacks Against Copts in Egypt, March 9, 2017; MEMRI Daily Brief ISIS Egypt is Openly Betting on Bigotry as a Winning Strategy, February 22, 2017; MEMRI JTTM report
Jihadis Express Satisfaction at Coptic Church Attack in Cairo, Threaten Egyptian Christians with Expulsion and Slaughter, December 12, 2016; MEMRI JTTM report Islamic State (ISIS) Video Features Beheading Of 21 Copts In Libya, February 15, 2015; MEMRI JTTM report Article
In Dabiq Magazine Calls On Muslims To Target Copts: 'Great Reward... On
Judgment Day For Those Who Spill The Blood Of These Coptic Crusaders
Wherever They May Be Found,' February 13, 2015.
[15]
It is typical of Google's approach that it initially invested money in
hiring lobbyists to defend its reputation, and only later in actually
removing jihadi content from its sites.
[16]
Article III(c). For the full text of the convention, see
Treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%2078/volume-78-i-1021-english.pdf.
[17] U.S. v. Coronado, S.D. Cal, 2006.
[18] Cnn.com, March 21, 2017.
[19] Blog.google/topics/google-europe/improving-our-brand-safety-controls/
[20] See MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 956, YouTube
Questioned In U.K. House Of Commons Over Keeping Terrorism-Promoting
Videos Active On Its Website; Of 125 Videos Of Al-Qaeda Commander
Al-Zawahiri Flagged On YouTube By MEMRI, YouTube Keeps 57 Active, April 9, 2013; No. 902, MEMRI
Tests YouTube's Flagging Feature For Videos Of Yemeni-American Al-Qaeda
Leader Anwar Al-Awlaki, One Year After His Death – The Results: 111 Out
Of 127 Remain Active; November 30, 2012; No. 883, Testing
YouTube's 'Promotes Terrorism' Flagging Feature For Videos Of Osama Bin
Laden, 9/11, Al-Qaeda – The Results: 58 Of 100 Remain Active, September 11, 2012.
[21] See MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 1291, Germany-Based
Encrypted Messaging App Telegram Emerges As Jihadis' Preferred
Communications Platform – Part V Of MEMRI Series: Encryption Technology
Embraced By ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Other Jihadis – September 2015-September
2016 and Germany-Based
Encrypted Messaging App Telegram Emerges As Jihadis' Preferred
Communications Platform – Part V Of MEMRI Series: Encryption Technology
Embraced By ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Other Jihadis – September 2015-September
2016: Section 2 – MEMRI Research Documents Jihadi Use Of Telegram, December 23, 2016.
[22]
For more on Al-Qaeda, see Y. Carmon, Y. Yehoshua, and A. Leone,
“Understanding Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi And The Phenomenon Of The Islamic
Caliphate State,” https://www.memri.org/reports/understanding-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-and-phenomenon-islamic-caliphate-state.
[23]
See Y. Carmon, Y. Yehoshua, and A. Leone, “Understanding Abu Bakr
Al-Baghdadi And The Phenomenon Of The Islamic Caliphate State,” https://www.memri.org/reports/understanding-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-and-phenomenon-islamic-caliphate-state.
[24]
For several years, Western countries have engaged in efforts to counter
the ideological and religious roots of terrorism by positive, rather
than negative, means. Instead of preventing the dissemination and spread
of the jihadi ideology, they exert media efforts aimed at promoting a
moderate alternative. Such efforts have failed, for a variety of
reasons. For one thing, in comparison to the massive jihadi efforts to
spread their ideology, these attempts were insignificant in number.
Second, it is misguided to believe that Muslim individuals and
communities would be swayed by ideological content offered by Western
governments. Third, and most important, such efforts have no chance of
being successful if no adequate effort is taken to counter the deluge of
violent ideological messages.
[25]
Needless to say, these expenses are, by definition, operational costs
and as such, should provide tax benefits for the companies, further
reducing the financial burden.
[26]
Developing the above-mentioned measures would be instrumental in the
fight against other criminal content online, such as pedophilia. On
April 28, 2017, Peter Wanless, chief executive of Britain’s National
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, called on the British
government to regulate Internet publishers and social media networks in
the same way as traditional media. See https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/hit-internet-giants-over-danger-to-child-safety-twbtm2zsl?CMP=TNLEmail_118918_1791306
[27]
Just one year ago, I gave a briefing to security officials from a major
European country, who came to Israel to study its counter-terrorism
defense deployment strategy. When I suggested that this was the scenario
awaiting them, they responded with disbelief, saying that their country
would never become a “police state.” This happened faster than
anticipated.
Yigal Carmon, President and Founder of MEMRI, served between 1988–1993 as Advisor on Countering Terrorism to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.
Source: https://www.memri.org/reports/internet-clean-jihadi-incitement-%E2%80%93-not-mission-impossible
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Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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