Social media has delivered international and domestic terrorists with supreme virtual access to individuals in the United States to enable assaults on the homeland. Terrorist groups predominantly utilize Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to disseminate their message and recruit recruits. Users may easily post, remark, respond, and retweet content on this platform, which allows terrorist groups to spread their propaganda more effectively. YouTube is crucial for spreading propaganda to garner support and establish influential terror networks.
Social media firms are facing a problem. While they utilized advanced algorithms to enhance search results and tailor advertising, their attempts to employ technology to identify and eliminate information that supports terrorist activities and attracts new followers have been less effective. The Internet is increasingly serving as the virtual platform for violent extremist groups to strengthen their agenda. These mediums enabled these groups to access a diverse audience outside their regional limits. Scholars contend that social media exacerbates and speeds up radicalization by enabling unrestricted access to and dissemination of information on the Internet. Thus, it accelerated the dissemination of messages to a large and widely dispersed populace. This trend shift is due to the ease of operating social media platforms without regulation, censorship, or government control, maintaining anonymity, quick communication, low-cost web presence maintenance, and the capacity to reach a wider audience. Therefore, social media is now a crucial communication tool for terrorist organizations to conceal their activities in a public manner.
The September 11 attack demonstrated a shift towards more indiscriminate targeting by international terrorists. Over 3,000 casualties of the strike were predominantly civilians. Furthermore, this attack marked the initial documented instance of suicide bouts conducted by global guerillas in the U.S. The September 11 about was the first fruitful act of global violence in the U.S. since the truck violence at the Biosphere Skill Midpoint in February.
The article highlighted trends in international terrorism that various U.S. intelligence agencies had identified. An observable change in operational intensity has occurred, moving away from conventional sources of terrorism, such as state sponsors and established terrorist groups, towards loosely connected extremists. There has been a corresponding change in strategies and approaches among global terrorists, with an emphasis on causing widespread casualties. The trends highlight the significant danger that international terrorists still pose to countries worldwide, especially the United States.
Since 9/11, the Section of Homeland Security and its several partners in the federal government, community and private segments, and communities worldwide have collaborated to find a new homeland security system. This system aims to improve the ability to prevent and protect against evolving threats, reduce dangers, and enhance the capacity to reply to and recuperate from various attacks and tragedies.
These combined efforts have established a solid groundwork to shield groups from terrorism and other dangers while also upholding the basic rights of all Americans.
Despite ongoing threats, our country has become more robust since 9/11, more equipped to address changing threats, and more resilient in the face of ongoing problems. Climate change, cyber susceptibilities, and hostile state and non-state performers overseas all threaten U.S. homeland defense, according to Air Force Gen. VanHerck emphasized the need for the United States to showcase resilience in addressing homeland difficulties to enhance the Defense Department’s ability to deter threats and uphold stability internationally and defending U.S. dominion, territory, population, and defense substructure from external intimidations, violence, or other dangers as instructed by the President. The Department of Defense is in charge of homeland defense. The Office of the Clerk supervises the Section of Homeland Security’s initiatives to battle terrorism, strengthen security, control and oversee our borders to facilitate trade and travel, enforce immigration laws, protect cyberspace, enhance disaster resilience, and offer crucial assistance for national and economic security, in collaboration with various partners.
Terrorist groups have set up their main base of operations on social media platforms to carry out important activities in achieving their goals. Social media has transformed into a strategic instrument for communicating and carrying out terrorism, leading to a rise in terrorist incidents worldwide. This paper suggests policy recommendations for the Section of National Defense, Armed Forces of the Philippines, and Philippine State Forces to enhance their strategic and technological capabilities in combating social media terrorism. The Philippine example underscores the necessity of prompt responses to counter the strategic use of online platforms by violent extremist groups.