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Web terrorism: fact or fiction

Posted on 15 Jul 2009 at 16:04

Is the internet a hotbed of terrorist activity, or is it a convenient excuse for more intrusive state snooping? Stewart Mitchell investigates.

It's accused of aiding widespread terrorist recruitment and radicalisation here in the UK. It's helped to train bomb makers and coordinate the efforts of extremists. It's so dangerous that leaving it unmonitored would "be a licence to kill people" according to former Defence Secretary and government minister Geoff Hoon.

This malevolent force isn't an Al-Qaeda splinter group or radical cleric, it's the internet: a weapon so powerful that the Government plans to spend £2 billion to keep a close eye on what it's up to - or rather, what we're up to when we're using it.

A new report, however, challenges whether the web is really the key component in radicalising would-be terrorists, while security experts don't believe that proposed measures for countering the online jihad can possibly be effective.

"Awful things are said to happen on extremist websites and in internet chatrooms, but few are able to identify what exactly it is that causes so much concern," claims the report from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR). "As a result, many of the policy proposals that are currently in circulation are either irrelevant or unworkable."

Yet against this backdrop, the Government is preparing to spend billions on a system designed to log all electronic communication in a bid to counter the perceived threat. Web terrorism: a real threat or an exaggerated problem used to justify a slew of new snooping laws? These are the questions shaping the way the internet is monitored in a world under the shadow of extremism.

Terror tactics

There is no doubt that terrorists use the internet. According to a report by Professor Gabriel Weimann for the US Institute for Peace, terrorists use the web for data mining for target research, networking, recruitment, training and fundraising.

The dilemma for governments is how to react. Countering this threat is central to the Home Office's "Contest" programme, which aims - among other things - to prevent radicalisation over the web by restricting extremist propaganda. Tactics include take-down notices and web filtering, among other options.

Yet according to the ICSR, not only are the risks posed by online recruitment over-egged, but the methods used to counter the threat are at best ineffective and at worst counter-productive. "Governments blame the web for radicalisation, but that simply isn't the case," ICSR researcher Tim Stevens told PC Pro. "From looking at court manuscripts we can see that the web is a factor, and that can't be discounted, but it isn't the sole vector of radicalisation.

"Radicalisation comes from schools, from family, mosques and the community; places where there is real-world and emotional contact. Deals aren't closed in cyberspace."

According to the ICSR report, the proposed censorship is also counter-productive because it draws attention to content, whether that be CNN footage of Israeli attacks in Gaza or videos of hostages being beheaded. "No filtering system is perfect, and in the wake of its introduction, various methods for circumvention would circulate," Stevens says. "The blacklists would come to serve as virtual guides to all the material 'the Government doesn't want you to see'. When you ban media it becomes more desirable - it gives them kudos."

Of course, this doesn't mean media-savvy extremists aren't going to try to use the web to distribute propaganda. Terror groups and fringe political parties know the value of the web in making themselves heard. "If you assume that young Muslims buy into the global Muslim community or ummah, it doesn't take too much to raise the ire. Look at Gaza and the pictures coming out of there during the invasion by Israel," says Richard Bonney, professorial fellow designate with the Royal United Services Institute. "That's the best type of recruitment propaganda for young extremists and it's plastered all over the web."