Tactics of Violent Extremism to Attract Audiences Online (Gradual Recruitment)
The development of technology and the ease of using social media platforms have created a fertile environment for extremist groups to promote their agendas and extremist ideas. As a result, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, and others have become effective tools for extremist groups to recruit sympathizers to their cause by manipulating information and spreading fake news.
Extremist organizations often target younger audiences online because they are easier to influence and win over; this makes online extremism a pressing threat that governments and society must confront. Consequently, initiatives such as the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (founded by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube) and “Tech Against Terrorism” (supported by the United Nations) have emerged to combat the use of new information and communication technologies for terrorist purposes, including recruitment, incitement to commit terrorist acts, as well as funding, planning, and preparation.
In this context, the 2023 report “Countering Violent Extremism Online” by the RAND Corporation, authored by researchers Joan Nicholson, Sean Killing, and Marigold Black, reviews the actions, behaviors, and technology platforms used by extremists online. The report also examines the implications and how to counter violent activities online, particularly ideologically driven violent extremism, such as that of Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
The report relies on a five-stage model that illustrates behaviors like general online consumption, which can include exposure to extremist content, prioritization of extremist content, risk mitigation, clarification of extremist identity, and focus on the dissemination of violent extremist content.
A Flexible Environment:
Two main factors have contributed to making cyberspace a conducive ecosystem for extremist activities: the democratization of communication and emerging technologies, and the growing awareness among contemporary terrorists of the potential to use the internet as a tool to achieve their goals. Thus, the internet became a refuge for extremists, even before its global spread. Over the years, violent extremist activities online have expanded further, particularly with the emergence of decentralized and encrypted networks and the dark web.
The RAND report highlights the adoption of social media by extremists to create or disseminate their own media, attract followers, organize virtual and real-world activities, and sometimes even enhance their resources and fundraise. However, the challenge here is that the rapid and continuous developments in platforms and applications have outpaced research capabilities and, thus, the ability to counter extremist activities online. This has created a gap between governmental and non-governmental policies to combat extremism and the ability of violent extremists to quickly adapt to technological advancements.
Moreover, the internet can facilitate the transformation of ordinary users into extremists due to continuous exposure to extremist ideas or behaviors through websites, particularly social media. Consequently, many users are recruited involuntarily or automatically, even without direct intervention by known extremist groups.
Extremist Behaviors:
A report by RAND referenced correspondence from the founder and former leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, in June 2002, in which he emphasized the importance of media warfare as part of the overall preparation for battles. This reflects Al-Qaeda’s early recognition of the enormous communication potential of the internet. Consequently, the organization sought to harness these capabilities to advance its strategic objectives. Below is an explanation of the evolution of extremist activities in parallel with the development of internet technologies and applications:
1) Websites and Forums: One of the earliest attempts by extremists to exploit the internet was the creation of Azzam.com in 1997 by a student at Imperial College London. The site focused on ongoing conflicts across the Islamic world at the time, such as in Bosnia, Chechnya, Kashmir, and Afghanistan. In 2000, Al-Qaeda launched the site Maalemaljihad.com, which was active until mid-July 2002. In April 2003, Al-Qaeda reemerged online with a new site called “Farouq.”
The extremist activities of Al-Qaeda were not limited to its main headquarters but extended to its active cells in the Arab region. These cells focused on engaging the public through chat rooms and forums. In late 2003, a wave of extremist websites appeared, most of which were linked to the Iraq War, such as the forums: Ansar, Ikhlas, Al-Buraq, Al-Firdous, Fallujah, and Shumukh al-Islam.
2) Social Media Platforms: Extremists quickly took advantage of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram upon their emergence. These platforms provided violent extremists with new ways to influence, build networks, and connect with larger audiences. ISIS, in particular, invested in developing a sophisticated media arm between 2013 and 2015, ensuring high-quality outputs, effective audience engagement, and large-scale recruitment of fighters, while maintaining unprecedented global communication with its followers.
3) Telegram Application: Since its launch, extremist organizations, particularly ISIS, have used Telegram to create public groups and channels (accessible to everyone) as well as private groups and channels that require an invitation or link to join. They even utilized anonymous bots on Telegram to disseminate content. By 2016 and 2017, Telegram became a primary platform for ISIS and affiliated violent extremists, especially since private groups could continue extremist activities for long periods without detection or deletion. However, Twitter remains a powerful platform for extremists due to its broader and quicker reach compared to Telegram.
4) Decentralized Networks and the Dark Web: The decentralized nature of certain networks (which rely on open-source code and distributed networks to reduce centralized control of the internet) provides violent extremist organizations with an effective tool. Content uploaded to these networks cannot easily be removed since they are not under central authority. For instance, in 2014, ISIS created a series of accounts on three low-level decentralized platforms: “Friendica,” “Diaspora,” and “Quitter.” In September 2017, ISIS also established accounts on another decentralized social media network called “Element,” followed by “Rocket.Chat” and “ZeroNet” in 2018.
Similarly, the Dark Web provides extremists with a higher level of personal security and the ability to host content in an unregulated space. For this reason, pro-ISIS media outlets continued to rely on websites on both the “Surface Web” and the “Dark Web” to archive and distribute official organization data, images, and videos up until 2021. Examples of ISIS channels on the Dark Web include Asas Media, Muslim News, and Al-Raed.
Electronic Tactics:
Extremist organizations use a variety of tactics to increase their chances of reaching and engaging the public with their violent extremist agenda. These tactics allow extremists to evade countermeasures, enhancing the resilience and longevity of their violent extremist ecosystem. Some of these tactics include:
1) Distraction: Aimed at protecting extremist accounts for as long as possible by deceiving artificial intelligence algorithms. Distraction is categorized into textual distraction (using symbols instead of letters, such as using “@” instead of “a”), visual distraction (using misleading images to avoid identity detection), and account distraction (using a misleading account name that appears to fight extremist groups rather than promote their ideas).
2) Security and Platform Selection: Extremists prefer anonymity-enhancing tactics, such as private networks, encrypted emails, “TOR,” and less restrictive platforms like Telegram and decentralized networks, to improve security and facilitate engagement.
3) Network Interconnectivity: Extremists prefer to navigate across platforms to maintain complex ecosystems (e.g., posting a video simultaneously on Odysee and Archive) to evade platform-specific measures and preserve their content for as long as possible.
Extremists prioritize creating diverse and continuous content to retain their target audience and attract others. They aim to expand audience participation, as the ultimate goal is to create safer, interactive spaces for recruitment. For the audience, the transition from an ordinary user to an extremist is usually gradual, unnoticed, and often an individual experience.
Countermeasures:
The RAND report emphasizes the need for further examination of online extremist behaviors to gain insights into specific traits that emerge during different stages of engagement. It also stresses the importance of expanding and testing extremist behaviors online during periods of activity and dormancy to better understand how they change. Moreover, it is crucial to broaden the scope of targeted groups by exploring extremist elements both within and outside the ecosystem.
Finally, the report highlights the necessity of fostering collaboration between various groups to improve awareness of the overlap between terrorism, extremism, foreign interference, and disinformation issues. Violent extremist activities online do not occur in isolation from other events and issues. Therefore, any anticipated strategies to combat online extremism must address topics such as disinformation and the erosion of trust in institutions.
While ideologically motivated violent extremism (IMVE) is more advanced in exploiting digital technologies and the online world compared to racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE), the report’s findings on “ideologically motivated violent extremism” activities online can be applied to understanding potential pathways for “racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism” as it evolves, prompting better responses. Notably, this latter form of extremism is currently a focus of Western governments.
In conclusion, the RAND report seeks to understand how violent extremists operate in an increasingly complex online ecosystem, where innovation and platform diversification provide violent extremists with significant advantages by offering a variety of measures and behaviors. These include exploring alternative technology platforms that present fewer challenges and are more secure.
The report ends by emphasizing the need for a deeper and more detailed understanding of the online violent extremism landscape—whether “ideologically motivated violent extremism” or “racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism”—to encourage policymakers to consider different, possibly more effective, solutions to combat and challenge violent extremism online.
Source: Joanne Nicholson, Sean Keeling, Marigold Black, Countering Violent Extremism Online: Understanding Adversity and Adaptation in an Increasingly Complex Digital Environment, The RAND Corporation, 2023.
