It is fairly obvious that social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook offer numerous benefits. They are revitalizing journalism, bringing people from all over the world together, and spreading the news quickly.
However, these sites have also given terrorist groups a tool to gain more power and kill more people.
Recently, the Taliban joined twitter under the account, @alemarahweb.
Though they usually post the tweets in a dialect from Afghanistan called Pashto, more posts have been written in English. They are using this site to spread their poisonous propaganda.
In their tweets, they call the the Afghan National Army (ANA) minions and puppets.
They celebrate the deaths of innocent civilians — often caused by their own attacks.
Some people might find this move humorous.
Or even ridiculous since the Taliban did declare the internet “unholy” in 2000, banning it from millions of Afghan’s.
I simply find it terrifying.
Unlike their website that is continuously being taken down, this twitter account can be used to plan attacks, encourage more killing, and to advertise to future Taliban members.
This is the future of terrorism. This is what we should fear.
Think about how quickly we get the news out now with Twitter and Facebook. Within seconds, a news even is traveling across the blogosphere. Now imagine how the Taliban could utilize that speed and efficiency to carry out their attacks.
This is an entirely new battle that we must fight now. We no longer need to fear guns and bombs. We need to fear words. Especially those on the internet.
Anwar al Awlaki, in my opinion, is the greatest terrorist threat to America. Though he was born in America, he now resides in Yemen. This man is believed to be a strategical genius. He is gaining influence in the terrorist world with his blog, Youtube videos, and Facebook page. He is attracting world wide followers, ready to do his bidding.
He is spreading anti-American sentiments to millions of people.
Just with a few words.