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Terrorism
The internet: the new propaganda platform
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Summary
Terrorism has become a phenomenon online as terrorist groups use it as a propaganda and recruiting platform. Terrorists also use it for fundraising purposes, and the United States federal government believes that terrorists also use the internet to plan attacks.
The Zapatista guerilla movement in Mexico began using the internet for recruitment in 1994. After Tupac Amaru, a Peruvian terrorist group, took over the Japanese embassy in Lima, Tupac Amaru-sympathizing sites in Canada and the United States appeared. Some had posted maps of the Japanese embassy, indicating Tupac Amaru's attack plan. Shining Path, another Peruvian terrorist group, had a website.
Lately Islamist terrorist group like Al Qaeda and Hezbollah have opened websites. Beheading videos from the Sunni terrorist groups were posted on the internet as a propaganda ploy. Right wing racist groups have websites too.
Al Qaeda used a site called "Al Neda" - An American took it over, but didn't tell people, so terrorists continued to post messages on it for five days, until they found out it was taken over.
Origins
The leftist terrorist groups got their ideological support from the Soviet Union. There aren't that many of them around now since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and the internet didn't pick up speed until the 1990s.
Terrorism was originally much harder to broadcast, since it costs money to own newspapers or television channels. With the internet, it's much cheaper for terrorists to have an outlet for publishing their propaganda.
Thanks to the internet, terrorist networks don't even need to directly control terror groups anymore. They just post propaganda online, and independent terrorist groups, called "franchises," form out of the woodwork.
Current status
Unfortunately, still going on
Images
 Beheading videos are a terrorist propaganda technique on the internet |
 Al Neda was used as an Al Qaeda website |
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 "Do You Want Fries With That?" (from Laughzilla) |
Videos
Related Pages
External Links
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