Dark Side of Social Network: Al-Qaida Recruiting

A new study says the online social network Facebook and the video-sharing Web service YouTube are just some of Internet services being used effectively for the recruitment and training of Islamic terrorists, the National Journal reports. Such sites allow terror groups including al-Qaida to recruit under radar and around the world by reaching potential new members in their homes, says the Pentagon-funded paper by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Through social media, Web video, e-mail, and other content and communications applications, terrorist leaders also can train and instruct new recruits without having to physically transport them to hidden base camps, the study says.

According to CSIS, the growing reach of the Internet since 9/11 has allowed al-Qaida, even in a weakened state, to disseminate its ideas to an ever-larger audience: “Despite extensive counterterrorism success against the group responsible for 9/11, the al-Qaida ‘brand’ now resonates with an increasingly diverse (though still narrow) cross-section of Muslims around the world,” the study says.