On Thursday, June 6, 2020, the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) held a virtual roundtable discussion and Mehr Brief's 4th volume publication entitled " Cyber Jihadists: The Confluence of Extremism and Digital Technology in Afghanistan". Niamat Ibrahimi, lecturer in International Relations at La Trobe University in Australia; General Lutfullah Mashal, former spokesman for the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and Enayat Mudaris, Journalist and media activist, were the speakers of the program. The event was moderated by Metra Mehran, researcher/civil activist.
The first speaker, Niamat Ibrahimi said that in recent years, using social networks by extremist groups has become an issue, and it is due to the characteristics of these networks. In his speech, he pointed to the fact that Taliban initially opposed any means of mass communication; but since 2011, the group's leadership realized the importance of social media. So they created official addresses on the web, and adopted new policies to use them. In addition to organized militant groups, other groups like Salafism, too started to use social media to express their ideologies, he added.
The second speaker, Enayat Modaris, said that in addition to its benefits, social media has disadvantages too, including but not limited to spread of fake news, false information, rumors as well as its lack of privacy. He said that Afghanistan has about 3.6 million social media users, most of whom do not have a clear understanding of the social media platforms and the Internet. He said that terrorist groups target these vulnerable social media users and influence them by showing them documentaries and emotional speeches. He said that so far, terrorist and extremist groups are operating on social networks as amateurs, and if these groups could build on their knowledge of online recruiting and thus operate more professionally, it would be a cause for high concern. He went on to address the phenomenon of Slacktivism, stating that it is the end of the struggle that must be waged in the real world against social problems.
The final speaker of the program, General Lutfullah Mashal, stated that security and military concerns have been raised by terrorist groups; and their use of social media is not new. In his opinion, what is important is the three extreme narratives in the virtual world, jihadi narrative, promoting the concept of supporting Islam, and using identity, that have allowed terrorist groups to attract numerous supporters. Internet and social media have only facilitated extremism, they are not the cause, he added. Meanwhile, use of social media required professionals with sufficient knowledge of strategic relationships, and terrorist groups had this advantage.
Please click on the link below to find the full text of Mehr Brief's 4th volume.
PDF in English