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Where Do Terrorists Go When They Are Kicked Off Social Media Platforms?

This article is more than 5 years old.

A few weeks ago, I published a piece on the social media platforms exploited by terrorists.

Using information released by the Crown Prosecution Service on terrorism in the United Kingdom in 2018, I found that people convicted for spreading hate from the Far Right tended to use only two platforms to do this – Twitter and Facebook. The majority of offenders (75%) disseminated material on Facebook.

Unlike the Far Right, Islamist related content was spread on a variety of platforms, indicating that perpetrators were getting better at hiding and spreading their messages. 33% used encryption – the process of encoding a message or information in such a way that only authorized parties can access it  to communicate.

Recently, I have expanded this search to include convictions from 2016, 2017, and 2018. Most of these offenders have used social media to prepare for terrorist attacks, collect and disseminate information, and encourage and support terrorism.

The question we need to ask ourselves, however, is what happens when technology companies identify these individuals, and ban them from continuing to use (and exploit) their platforms.

The first technique is to create a new account to continue to disseminate a terrorist message. As we know, a social media account is usually verified using a mobile phone number. In one court case in 2018, however, Rabar Mala – later sentenced to eight years in prison – would help re-open a messaging channel or account that had been blocked by the provider. To do this, he would obtain a SIM card and use it in one of his UK mobile phones, and send the third party (who was often based outside the UK) the mobile telephone number. The third party would then use this telephone number to open a social media or messaging account, as the content provider would text an activation code to the new mobile number given to the third party.

Not one, or two, but 360 SIM cards were used by Mala in this way.

The second option for an individual banned from a social media platform is to use an alternative. These include private Telegram channels, live talks on Paltalk, and a social media platform called VK, or “VKontakte”. The latter is the largest European online social networking service, based in Saint Petersburg and available in several languages, but most popular among Russian speaking users. VK is ranked globally, for all social networks, second only to Facebook and higher than Instagram or Twitter, due to the ease with which an account can be created.

However, how effective are these alternatives? Not very, given the demand that Rabar Mala faced. After all, in order for a messaging campaign to be consumed effectively, it requires an audience of followers, and a large and popular reach.

Take the example of Islamic State. Its ‘media mujahideen’, or online army of internet fans, would meticulously share and re-post official content across a number of social media platforms, as part of a coordinated effort to maximize the organisation’s impact and relevance, and assist in recruitment. Given the largely inaccessible nature of encrypted channels like Telegram and Paltalk, it is perhaps unsurprising that mass recruitment rarely took place on these channels. Though terrorist propaganda is likely to exist in relative abundance on the Darknet and other encrypted platforms, proselytization and recruitment will continue on main platforms where a general audience can be found.

But even with these alternatives, the British government is becoming more effective in catching and prosecuting offenders. Recently, Shafi Mohammed Saleem was convicted of, and plead guilty to, encouraging terrorism online.  Throughout 2016 and 2017, Saleem had used over 20 Twitter and Instagram accounts to share pro-Islamic State material. One of the tweets he posted was an image of ‘zombie knives’, which are illegal in the UK. Included in what Detectives recovered from Saleem’s home was a photo saved on the Telegram app of Saleem holding a handgun, as well as videos of Islamic State propaganda and Osama bin Laden.

Commander Dean Haydon of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command noted how important it is to hold those who share subversive material accountable: “Every tweet has the potential to radicalize vulnerable people.”  As of February 2018, Saleem had been sentenced to two years in prison.