Sofia Savas

White
Honors American Literature
28 August 2014
Internet Facilitation of Terrorism
Although the internet seems like too public of a place to be spreading terrorism through
propaganda, this method seems to be gaining velocity. The numbers of terrorist propaganda
websites have risen from under 100 to over 5000 in the past decade (Wright). These websites
are usually targeted at unaffected minors and are used to do things like recruit, inform, and train
volunteers, provide plans for attacks, make violence more public, and improve their image. The
ease of access of the internet makes these things easy to do considering there is such a lack of
restrictions. Groups of Islamic extremists use this method for spreading information, particularly
the ones involved in a jihad, or religious war. In recent years, mujahadeen have been
developing a new type of warfare called electronic jihad which utilizes these tactics of
spreading information (Wright). Muslim extremist groups utilize the freedom of the internet to
expose propaganda, spread disinformation to previously unexposed people, and expand the
radicalization of the group.
These extremist websites stretch beyond spreading lies and disinformation - they even
include games, forums, chat rooms, video and audio broadcasts, and tutorials on building
weapons and bombs to reach the maximum amount of sympathizers and supporters. An
example of a video game on a website shows the player shooting US soldiers - and children as
young as seven years old play it. These resources are used daily to recruit new members, and
they are working. Children play these games purely because they are fun and easy to find, and
begin to discover more about the extremist groups and, being children, become more and more
brainwashed until they are full fledged members. Public posts also include messages sent out,
which usually state that recruits are necessary to preserve the Islamic religion. Pathos is used to

emotionally connect to targeted audiences of around 7-25, but parents are occasionally targeted
as well. The messages tell the parents that they should be raising their children in the correct
way to support the jihad. All posts are carefully translated and sent out to the according
countries and areas.
Electronic jihad, made by the mujahideen, is created by hackers who are now using the
internet to participate in online warfare. Attacks are made electronically, and rival attackers can
be tracked. The majority of attacks are made on websites that do not show signs of agreeing
with the mujahideen, such as Christian websites. However, very few of these have been
targeted towards a website run by the US government, although a poll shows that these Islamic
extremists who run the websites would like to attack a site like the FBI or CIA (Wright). This
usually doesnt happen because they are aware that it would attract far too much interest in
something that the government is already beginning to look into.