Attempting to block terrorists’ access online or removing the content they post is an ineffective response to terrorism in cyberspace, said Prof. Gabriel Weimann, a leading expert on modern terror and mass media, in a presentation hosted by University of Haifa and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on March 15 at the Council.

Weimann—who works in University of Haifa’s Department of Communication—has published 120 reports and nine books, and has received numerous grants and awards from international foundations.

Removing terrorists’ online content does not work, explained Weimann, “because they reemerge. They repost it. It’s an endless war. But there are other measures we can take. We can launch counter campaigns. We can be proactive in the sense of targeting the same subpopulations terrorists target. But instead of launching campaigns of death, suicide, and doom, we can send different messages.”

Weimann’s book “Terrorism in Cyberspace: The Next Generation” analyzes content from more than 9,800 terrorist websites, selecting the most important kinds of web activity; describing their background and history; and surveying their content, the groups and prominent individuals involved, and their effects.

“It’s very important to know that this material is a window into the minds of terrorists,” Weimann said at the Chicago event. “We can learn a lot about them. Who are they targeting? What are the motives they use? What are their grievances? What are the appeals they use? Why is it working and how can we attack the reasons, not just the messages?”

Cyber-attacks cost the U.S. economy up to $109 billion in 2016, the White House Council of Economic Advisers estimated in a report last month, with such threats only increasing since.

Asked what social media platforms and other web giants can do to restrict terrorists’ communication, Weimann said he is optimistic about the growing public pressure on the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Microsoft to cooperate on minimizing terrorists’ use of their networks, but pessimistic because “it will not solve the problem.”

“It is almost impossible to censor everything, considering the amount of traffic,” said Weimann. “You can’t do it with human eyes, you need robots to do it. They won’t be very efficient, and more than that, terrorists will react to them, like they do now by moving from WhatsApp and other platforms to more popular and more secure ones.”

Karen Berman, CEO of American Society of the University of Haifa, stated, “Terrorists’ exploitation of social media and other mass communication platforms is one of the most frightening and immediate aspects of contemporary terror. Prof. Weimann’s timely presentation provided both practical insights and a big-picture perspective, reflecting University of Haifa’s mission to spread awareness about the greatest challenges facing the world today.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)