Abstract
Without recruitment terrorism can not prevail, survive and develop. Recruitment provides the killers, the suicide bombers, the kidnappers, the executioners, the engineers, the soldiers and the armies of future terrorism. The internet has become a useful instrument for modern terrorists’ recruitment and especially of foreign fighters. Online platforms and particularly the new social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) combine several advantages for the recruiters. The global reach of the Net allows groups to publicise events to more people; and by increasing the possibilities for interactive communication, new opportunities for assisting groups and individuals are offered, along with more chances for contacting them directly. Terrorist recruiters may use interactive online platforms to roam online communities, looking for more ‘promising’ and receptive individuals, using sophisticated profiling procedures. Online recruitment of foreign fighters by terrorist organisations such as the Islamic State (IS) is analysed here as an example of an online multichannel recruitment venue.
The author is a Full Professor of Communication at Haifa University, Israel. This chapter is based on a research project on Terrorism in Cyberspace funded by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Washington, DC, The Woodrow Wilson Center (Washington, DC) and the National Institute of Justice (NIH).
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- 1.
Katz 2014a.
- 2.
According to UN assessment published in November 2014, the number of foreign terrorist fighters in the Syria and Iraq conflicts alone has grown to over 15,000 from more than 80 countries while other fighters are reportedly seeking to join militant groups in Somalia, Yemen, as well as several countries in the Maghreb and Sahel regions, at: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49381#.VRkSQvnoT_8.
- 3.
Hoffman 2004, p. 1.
- 4.
The term foreign terrorist fighter was used in the UN Security Council Resolution 2178 (2014). Adopted under Chapter VII, it requires states to take a series of measures to prevent the movement and recruitment of foreign terrorist fighters.
- 5.
The report was obtained and reported by The Guardian and published on 30 October 2014, at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/30/foreign-jihadist-iraq-syria-unprecedented-un-isis.
- 6.
- 7.
“Isis: Jihadi Janes in Syria incite UK Muslim women to violence say ICSR study”, International Business Times, 18 January 2015, at: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-jihadi-janes-syria-incite-uk-muslim-women-violence-says-icsr-study-1483971. See also Chap. 7 by Van Leuven, Mazurana and Gordon in this volume.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
Just 2015.
- 11.
- 12.
Zanini and Edwards 2001.
- 13.
- 14.
Gerwehr and Daly 2006.
- 15.
On the notion of trust in online recruitment, see Hegghammer 2015.
- 16.
Kik is a smartphone application for messaging.
- 17.
- 18.
Lennings et al. 2010.
- 19.
MEMRI 2014.
- 20.
Weimann 2008b.
- 21.
- 22.
See also Chap. 7 by Van Leuven, Mazurana and Gordon in this volume.
- 23.
For example, there are at least 70 German women who joined IS (see: http://rt.com/news/245077-germany-women-join-isis/), about 60 British women (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/syria-girls-at-least-60-british-women-and-girls-as-young-as-15-have-joined-isis-in-syria-10078069.html) and the overall estimate is that about 10 % of foreign recruits from Europe, North America and Australia are women (http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/why-women-choose-isis-islamic-militancy).
- 24.
Recorded Future 2015.
- 25.
Klausen 2015.
- 26.
Berger and Morgan 2015.
- 27.
The Dark Web is a collection of thousands of websites that use various measures and tools to hide their IP address, thus enabling anonymous users from surveillance and identification. The websites on the Dark Web are publicly visible, yet hide the addresses of the servers that run them. That means anyone can visit a Dark Web site, but it can be very difficult to figure out where they are hosted or by whom.
- 28.
Cited in Department for Homeland Security 2010.
- 29.
Weyers 2014.
- 30.
As Klausen, 2015, at 4 argues, “Tweets of cats and images of camaraderie bridge the real-life gap between Strasbourg, Cardiff, or suburban Denver, and being in a war zone. They may even make it seem more desirable to be in war-torn Raqqa and Aleppo than comfortably, and boringly, in the family home”.
- 31.
- 32.
Weimann 2014a.
- 33.
- 34.
See, for example, the VOX-Pol project, a European Union Framework Program, funding academic research network focused on researching the prevalence, contours, functions, and impacts of violent online political extremism and responses to it. At: http://voxpol.eu/.
- 35.
White House 2011a, p. 6.
- 36.
White House 2011b, p. 20.
- 37.
Bipartisan Policy Center 2012.
- 38.
MEMRI 2013.
- 39.
Malik et al. 2014.
- 40.
Bipartisan Policy Center 2012.
- 41.
Casebeer and Russell 2005.
- 42.
Al Raffie 2012, p. 17.
- 43.
See SNTT website (http://www.sntt.me/), Facebook (https://ar-ar.facebook.com/saynototerror), Twitter (https://twitter.com/saynototerror), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/saynototerror).
- 44.
Aly et al. 2014.
- 45.
Reported by CNN, at: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/23/europe/france-anti-jihadist-campaign/.
- 46.
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Weimann, G. (2016). The Emerging Role of Social Media in the Recruitment of Foreign Fighters. In: de Guttry, A., Capone, F., Paulussen, C. (eds) Foreign Fighters under International Law and Beyond. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-099-2_6
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