Political Communication In CMC

Terrorism and the Internet

Manuel Janka

Terrorism

Use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce people

These groups often for political purposes

Need media to show people what they did

Terrorism

Internet ideal media 1/3 Easy access

It is easy to get access to the internet.

Little regulation Less regulation if you compare it with a other medias (for

example the newspaper)

Huge audiences spread throughout the world Many people have connection to the internet, therefore

you can easily reach huge mass of people.

Terrorism

Internet ideal media 2/3 Anonymity of communication

It is very difficult to trace which computer created which webpage and its nearly impossible to know who used that computer.

Fast flow of information If you upload a homepage, everybody with an internet

connection has immediately access to it.

Terrorism

Internet ideal media 3/3 Inexpensive

Internet access is not expensive. For example you often have free access to the internet on the most airports.

A multimedia environment In the internet, you can easily use different environment.

For example: Text, Picture, Video, Audio, …

Terrorism

Content of terrorist sites 1/2

History of the organizationThey want to show, when and why they were founded

History of activitiesEverybody should know what they already did.

Terrorism

Content of terrorist sites 2/2

Details from leaders, founders and heroesAll important people were presented Also the famous martyrs

has their biographies on their website and where celebrated as heroes.

Information over their political and ideological aimsProbably the most important fact are their political ideology

and their planned aims to get their ideology

Terrorism

Audiences Current and potential supporters

People who helps the terrorism group.

International public opinionPeople who want to stay up to date and increase their

general knowledge.

Enemy publicsThey also want to reach their enemies to demoralize or

frighten them.

Terrorism

Usage of Internet for terrorists 1/4 Psychological Warfare

Change the attitude of the enemy with that warfare. It is also used to deliver fear.

Publicity and PropagandaThey use the internet to get famous. Their aim is that

everybody knows them and their intentions

Terrorism

Usage of Internet for terrorists 2/4 Data Mining

The Internet is the biggest library. Terrorists also need knowledge. One example is “How to build a bomb”. They often get that information from the internet

FundraisingEverybody needs money, also terrorists. They use their

web platform usually to get donations to realize their plan.

Terrorism

Usage of Internet for terrorists 3/4 Recruitment and Mobilization

Terrorists need supporters for their intention. They use the internet to find them.

Sharing InformationTerrorist groups usually want to share the information

with everyone. One Example is, that Hamas have on their official homage a receipt for homemade poison.

Terrorism

Usage of Internet for terrorists 4/4 Networking

They also use the internet to stay in contact with other terrorist groups.

Planning and CoordinationThe Internet is used as communication media for

planning their attacks. One Example for that is that after the Sept. 11th, they found thousands of encrypted texts of Al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda

Sunni Islamistic group

Founded between 1988 and 1990

Famous for assassination 11/9/2001 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG7GDEDjQA4

Many web platforms, but most got disabled

Al Jazeera Official English hompage

http://english.aljazeera.net/

Speaker for Al Qaeda

Founded as news channel

Got famous and big through Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda Now they have many different channels and different languages And many live streams

Al Jazeera is nowadays a very big broadcast network.

Al Jazeera

Bibliography

BBC (2001). What is terrorism?http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1555265.stm

Different Definations of Terrorismhttp://www.google.at/search?hl=de&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&hs=M4Y&defl=en&q=define:terrorism&ei=msO6Sd3fKJC0jAfavoCcCA&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

Knickmeyer, E. (2008). Al-Qaeda Web Forums Abruptly Taken Offline.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/17/AR2008101703367_pf.html

Offizial English Hompage of Al Jazeera.http://english.aljazeera.net/

Talbot, D. (2005). Terror's Server - How radical Islamists use internet fraud to finance terrorism and exploit the internet for Jihad propaganda and recruitmenthttp://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/404

Bibliography Timothy, T. (2003). Al Qaeda and the Internet: The Danger of “Cyberplanning”

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/USAWC/parameters/03spring/thomas.pdf

Weimann, G. (2004). WWW.Terror.Net: How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet.http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr116.pdf

Weimann, G. (2008). Mass-Media Theater: Planning terrorist actions with the media as a major considerationhttp://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2008/May/20080522173339SrenoD0.2942469.html

Weimann, G (2009). Virtual Terrorism: How Modern Terrorists Use the Internethttp://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/9/2/0/5/pages92053/p92053-1.php

Wikipedia, Al Qaedahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda