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Terrorism - Is social media/the internet making it worse?

mahamageehad

A friendly match between Germany and Netherlands was cancelled and evacuated a few hours ago due to bomb threats. If you were following the whole thing on Twitter you'd have learned that an ambulance filled with explosives was outside the stadium as well as a device inside and another bomb at the train station. BBC and a few others even reported on these claims.

Turns out none of those were actually true though.....

So, without getting into the whole ethics and religion part of the terrorism debate, is social media/the internet making it worse? Or at least making it seem a bigger threat for people than it actually is?

With the latest attacks in Paris, people seem to have lost all perspective on the level of the threat, talking about cancelling trips and closing borders and barricading themselves into the house and stuff. I can't even count how many references to World War 3 I've seen over the last few days!

Before I get accused of it, I'm not saying we shouldn't show support and empathy to the people of France. What happened there was horrible and disgusting and an eye-opener for many in Europe. But even in the worst violence that happened on French soil since WW2, in the worst hit venue (the concert), there was a 94% chance of survival. More people died on Irish roads last year than were killed in Paris but people haven't abandoned their cars in fear. It's the same when an airplane crashes- it freaks a lot of people out and they refuse to fly, despite the fact that they're more likely to be killed driving to the airport!

Tl;dr - Is social media and sensationalist reporting (in conjunction with mé féin attitudes) making the whole terrorism thing seem worse than it is? Or should I be at home quaking in my boots?

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NachoBusiness

They shouldn't allow people to hear the real voices of ISIS.

They should dub their voices with the voices of actors.

That's the only way to defeat terrorists.

DEFTLEFTHAND

A terrible worrying thing is to go on European Islamic message boards and see people agreeing with these assaults. The enemy lives amongst us.

Overheal

"Why do they hate us?"

Ask a progressive, "Because we constantly interfere in their regional affairs, selling bombs to people that drop them on other people, killing kids with a made-in-USA explosive."

Ask a conservative, "They hate our way of life, our folk music, our television, our freedom, etc."

Eh, which one makes a lot more sense? eg. how many terror threats have been placed on Ireland from the Middle East, and precisely just how much does Ireland interfere with the Middle East? If they were pissed off about the fast food they would have bombed a Supermacs years ago.

keithclancy

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

In fairness I think the point the person's B's are making are valid ones. People ignore the non-trendy atrocities Africa/Asia/Russia v Chechnya etc. I suppose in fairness to person A they are only reacting to what happens in the mainstream media. Is person B a hipster in this regard? I don't know.
But if your going to start changing your profile pic to the French flag - on the basis of equality you should be putting up flags of countries each week for the latest one!

I think the Internet is making terrorism worse because on the basis of the social conformity bias, people are being coerced into what to think by the majority.

I think it's more about people making assumptions, e.g. the French flag on peoples profiles many people did this as a 'Please don't bomb the sh*t out of Syria for this'

The other people you mention I think it's merely whats close to home, the Paris bombings weren't big news in China, India, Japan, Indonesia or the Philippines for example, that's almost half the world population wise.

News is about what people will watch, for example this Irish woman that was killed in Den Bosch in the Netherlands was all over the Irish News but wasn't mentioned anywhere on the Dutch news.

It was news because she was Irish, it didn't matter where the event occurred.

Sort of like people that didn't know somebody don't go to their Funeral.

Ireland would have many more ties and more Irish people would visit Paris or have relatives/friends living there than they would in Beirut for example.

nullzero

Overheal wrote: »

"Why do they hate us?"

Ask a progressive, "Because we constantly interfere in their regional affairs, selling bombs to people that drop them on other people, killing kids with a made-in-USA explosive."

Ask a conservative, "They hate our way of life, our folk music, our television, our freedom, etc."

Eh, which one makes a lot more sense? eg. how many terror threats have been placed on Ireland from the Middle East, and precisely just how much does Ireland interfere with the Middle East? If they were pissed off about the fast food they would have bombed a Supermacs years ago.

The current crowd are different to the Islamic terrorists of the past. ISIS adhere to the idea set out in the Koran that Islam will take over the entire world be it by assimilation or force, regardless of any particular countries political status, every country is fair game for them and their warped tactics. While I can understand the point you are making you are applying existing logic to a completely new situation. These people are a new breed entirely and while western foreign policy may have played a part in these people's radicalisation it is not their sole motivation, that married to the fact that a lot of these people are not necessarily coming from countries or regions that have had any conflicts occur in recent memory makes ISIS a more worrying proposition than previous Islamic terror groups.

StewartGriffin

I've been wearing a PLO scarf for the last five years and last night I accidentally clicked on a link on Facebook that took me to a NEWS site and I found out that Palestinians are actually proper MUSLIMS! :eek: Like OMFG!
So, what do I do? Do I take off the scarf and get "unliked" by my "Freedom for Palestine" buddies, or do I leave it on and get awkward questions from the kids in school, (I'm a geography teacher,) about supporting Islam?

Worried and confused.

[Deleted User]

It hasn't make it worse exactly it has just given terrorism more opportunities, On the news one of the organisers form Belgium was described as as a paranoid weed smoking malcontent who ownes a run down bar.

Before the internet his chances of joining up with more other malcontents would have been much more limited, now at the click of a button he is in touch with militants in Syria and organising bomb attracts.

sonny.knowles

StewartGriffin wrote: »

I've been wearing a PLO scarf for the last five years and last night I accidentally clicked on a link on Facebook that took me to a NEWS site and I found out that Palestinians are actually proper MUSLIMS! :eek: Like OMFG!
So, what do I do? Do I take off the scarf and get "unliked" by my "Freedom for Palestine" buddies, or do I leave it on and get awkward questions from the kids in school, (I'm a geography teacher,) about supporting Islam?

Worried and confused.

Or option c - burn the scarf.

keithclancy

StewartGriffin wrote: »

I've been wearing a PLO scarf for the last five years and last night I accidentally clicked on a link on Facebook that took me to a NEWS site and I found out that Palestinians are actually proper MUSLIMS! :eek: Like OMFG!
So, what do I do? Do I take off the scarf and get "unliked" by my "Freedom for Palestine" buddies, or do I leave it on and get awkward questions from the kids in school, (I'm a geography teacher,) about supporting Islam?

Worried and confused.

How about you keep your symbolism and personal ideas at the door, not everyone in the school might be ok with your ideas.

Some other teacher might be Jewish and it could cause problems.

StewartGriffin

keithclancy wrote: »

Some other teacher might be Jewish and it could cause problems.

No, it's ok. It's a Catholic school.

keithclancy

StewartGriffin wrote: »

No, it's ok. It's a Catholic school.

Ah yes, I forgot, Ireland were you can only teach people if you join the Catholic Club.

Do you think it's your job to teach children that aren't your own, political ideas ?

Or is your job to teach them Geography ?

ScumLord

Social media reminds me of that story from the bible where that Jesus fella was condemned by the unthinking mob out for blood. If that scene happened today Pontius Pilate would have been condemned as a Jesus supporter and crucified alongside Jesus before he could even say hello to the crowd.

Facebook is the largest mob in human history. It has all the undesirable qualities of a mob and some new ones thrown in for good measure. People posting on facebook may think they're being smart or proactive, but they basically become the digital equivalent of a screaming lunatic at the back of a crowd of generally angry people.

[Deleted User]

Corpus Twisty wrote: »

Is it not doing the rounds that Anonymous hacked the paris network and gave the terrorists details to the Gendarmerie? Also fecked up a lot of their Twitter/vid feeds??

Wouldn't be 100% on that, but I was told so this evening. If true, or even a bit true - there's the internet making it better.

The Randy Riverbeast wrote: »

The 72 virgins strike back.

They have successfully taken down around 5,000 (at last count, it might be more now) Twitter accounts associated with Daesh (because f*ck calling them IS) alone. Now .. assuming that even a minority of those were stupid enough not to cover their ass with VPNs and the like, then that means that the authorities now have the details of many sympathisers.

Also the recent Anonymous attacks have forced Daesh to inform their users on how to better protect themselves online.

On topic - no, Social media/the internet isn't making terrorism worse. Sure, it might make it easier to get their propaganda across, but that's about it. It's actually been proven recently that they weren't even using encrypted texting to organize the attacks.

ScumLord

Deleted User wrote: »

On topic - no, Social media/the internet isn't making terrorism worse.

The whole point of terrorism is to terrorize. I think many facebook users are terror addicts, they seek it out of facebook and promote the most terrifying posts they can find. Facebook has made terrorism much more effective.

[Deleted User]

ScumLord wrote: »

The whole point of terrorism is to terrorize. I think many facebook users are terror addicts, they seek it out of facebook and promote the most terrifying posts they can find. Facebook has made terrorism much more effective.

I don't really agree as such. If anything, what's made terrorism more effective is 24 Hour news networks, who discuss nothing but the attacks for days on end, nonstop.

ScumLord

Deleted User wrote: »

I don't really agree as such. If anything, what's made terrorism more effective is 24 Hour news networks, who discuss nothing but the attacks for days on end, nonstop.

Ya, I saw sky news is on youtube now so I stuck it on for a while. I don't know how their allowed to broadcast, it's blatant scaremongering. It really was like watching the people who write the scripts for low budget action flicks talk about world affairs.

But at least there's some relation to the real world and the truth. Facebook will promote out and out lies to push an agenda. People can wallow in their fears and end up with absolutely bizarre points of view.

StewartGriffin

keithclancy wrote: »

Ah yes, I forgot, Ireland were you can only teach people if you join the Catholic Club.

Don't have one. We have Rugby, Athletics and Debating. We're a fairly small school.

Do you think it's your job to teach children that aren't your own, political ideas ?

No, of course not. That's the CSPE and SPHE teachers job.

Or is your job to teach them Geography ?

Yes, I do Geography, and sometimes take the Religion class.

What's all this got to do with my Dilemma?

keithclancy

StewartGriffin wrote: »

Yes, I do Geography, and sometimes take the Religion class.

What's all this got to do with my Dilemma?

Sure ... then I guess it's fine to wear a jumper with the Union Jack on it .. or a jumper with a picture of Ian Paisley on it in your workplace.

An Irish Catholic Geography/Part Time religion teacher wearing a Kefiyeh while teaching children just looks strange.

In the end the only reason you wear it is as a political statement.

That shouldn't be in school at all.

Not saying I do not share your point of view, but I would never push my personal ideas onto children, that's up to their parents and just plain wrong.

With a captive audience, positive propaganda is as bad as Negative propaganda.

StewartGriffin

keithclancy wrote: »

Sure ... then I guess it's fine to wear a jumper with the Union Jack on it .. or a jumper with a picture of Ian Paisley on it in your workplace.

An Irish Catholic Geography/Part Time religion teacher wearing a Kefiyeh while teaching children just looks strange.

In the end the only reason you wear it is as a political statement.

That shouldn't be in school at all.

Not saying I do not share your point of view, but I would never push my personal ideas onto children, that's up to their parents and just plain wrong.

With a captive audience, positive propaganda is as bad as Negative propaganda.

What the heck's a Kafiyeh? My PLO scarf has little smiley Yasser Arafat faces all over it.

Corpus Twisty

StewartGriffin wrote: »

I've been wearing a PLO scarf for the last five years and last night I accidentally clicked on a link on Facebook that took me to a NEWS site and I found out that Palestinians are actually proper MUSLIMS! :eek: Like OMFG!
So, what do I do? Do I take off the scarf and get "unliked" by my "Freedom for Palestine" buddies, or do I leave it on and get awkward questions from the kids in school, (I'm a geography teacher,) about supporting Islam?

Worried and confused.

Lol. Way to be informed about a cause.. gonna wreck your head if you ever read up about Che Guevara.