Countering the influence of terrorist organizations in the digital landscape

Digital terrorism thrives as radicals exploit social media, urging Pakistan to counter online radicalization

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We are living in a digital age where almost everyone has access to the internet. The digital ecosystem is widely dominated by technology such as algorithms, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and cybersecurity.

As the world gears up to cherish this digitalization, unfortunately, terrorist administrations are operating the technological modernisation to exploit the local protests of people to leverage their ends by propagating disinformation against the state.

Social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, and WhatsApp have granted them an opportunity to organize, communicate, and convince potential radicals. The effect of online and offline radicalization is proving to be challenging to counter owing to its difficulty.

Social media that works on algorithms attracts like-minded individuals to the unrestricted plethora of violent footage and content along with the option of connecting actors across the globe.

The advancement of mass media has entirely changed the dynamic of radicalization and serious the threats of cyberterrorism because of the accessibility, availability, and affordability of the internet. Terrorists and radicals use social media as a major tool to echo their ideas.

This article will now delve into the case study of how the TTP and BLA are hypothetically radicalizing the youth in the context of Pakistan.

Recently, a student from Punjab University, Talal Aziz, who surrendered to establishments, revealed how the proscribed terrorist organization Baloch Liberation Army leadership, which is based in the mountainsides of the country or abroad, is employing students through digital platforms across the country.

Factually, the BLA had recruited a multitude of students through their egregious dark web passages and encrypted message tactics on Telegram. The recruitment of Baloch women for suicide attacks is the sheer evidence of BLA’s chilling technological development in spreading propaganda videos that glorify the violence and terrorists as martyrs.

In addition to that, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have made their presence known on social media since the Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan recognized their dominance over Kabul.

TTP operates under the guise of Islam by transmission or posting “out of context” Islamic verses and scripture without mentioning their origin in order to escalate social chaos and justify their political strength and jihad.

The TTP ideological and social radicalization via social media outlets in the tribal region or peripheries has an inexorable effect on the minds of youths who are uneducated, unemployed, and far from political awareness.

The reason youth succumb to such an option is, firstly, their interaction or connectivity with the internet, and secondly, they feel that their sense of disenfranchisement could only be solved through violence, which was poured into their minds by being exposed to heavily inundated content on social media that naturally indoctrinated them toward their ideologies.

Digital terrorism is not a national wonder threatening one state but a borderless issue that deserves international attention. Terrorists take advantage of the anonymity and reach of the internet as a means to instill fear, tyrannize populations, and upset societies through staunch propaganda, sabotaging critical structure, and instigating violence.

The threat of cyber terrorism and online radicalization are national security issues and need to be carefully considered by the government in order to leakage any prevailing threat that we might face in the future.