Terrorist Organizations Using Social Media

The use of technology has increased expectational over the last decade. Organizations across the globe are using the advantages that the internet and social media sites present, to include terrorist groups. Social media allows individuals from all across the world to interact and stay connected at all times with the click of a mouse. Terrorist organizations have learned and adapted to this new technology with the increased popularity and the number of persons that use social media on a daily basis. Terrorists use these sites to surpass counterterrorism methods and keep in contact with their organization regardless of where they may be located. Through these sites terror organizations are capable of recruiting new members and spread the message

Terrorist organizations can reach the masses through the media coverage of an incident. However, using social media and the internet terrorist organizations no longer need to rely on media to gain recognition. Terrorist use social media to target specific groups of people, gaining influence over individuals that are easily manipulated (Howard & Hoffman, 2012). Through the use of social media contact after a large scale planned attack, individuals can receive orders to fulfill smaller more isolated attacks, to follow the large-scale attack and instill more fear into society while they have no other connection to a group than social media. Through social media, terror groups have free access to the Internet and are able to reach a large audience to recruit, influence, and share propaganda, among other things (Howard & Hoffman, 2012). Social media allows individuals in terrorist groups to spread information regarding attacks, enemies, and events without delay. Without a delay with information attacks can be more thoughuly carried out and have all individuals connected. With terrorist personnel covering the globe individuals can communicate even if they are in different

The future of terrorism will continue to involve the same trends seen over the years such as suicide bombings, chemical attacks, hijackings, and kidnappings (Simonsen & Spindlove, 2013). Old methods that have been used by terrorist organizations have been successful in getting the recognition that they desire. Weapon inspectors in Iraq found large caches of chemical and biological weapons (Simonsen & Spindlove, 2013). There is a high chance that all the weapons in the area were not found, or they were given to other individuals even to include members of the terrorist group Al Qaeda. If these terrorist groups have been given access to these types of weapons it could endanger many individuals to include innocent