01st September 2016 22:55:20 Hours
“Terrorist groups have used the social media innovatively and with great skill for their recruitment, training and propaganda. They target young people on social media platforms with extremist ideologies and they conduct over 80% of their activities on social media. For terrorists, act of terrorism is an act of communication. For them the message matters, not the victims. Terrorists groups have invented several video games that allow people to become terrorists,” so said Dr. Aravind Gupta, Deputy National Security Adviser to the Government of India addressing the ‘Colombo Defence Seminar - 2016’ sessions this afternoon (1).
He spoke on the topic, ‘Usage of Technology and Social Media as a proxy for Soft Power’ as one of the panelists in the Session 2 on Thursday (1).
“There is no unanimity amongst experts on how to deal with the vast amount of terrorism related content circulating on the social media platforms. Nations should have a clear national legal framework, compatible with international norms, ensure a balance between national security needs and the need to protect the right of citizens. Within the framework of these laws, social media monitoring can be done by building technical capacities using automated tools and acquiring capabilities in big data analytics,” he highlighted.
Summing up, he emphasized the need to balance the needs of national security, citizens’ rights, overall economic and social well-being, build requisite infrastructure to suit citizens’ needs, come up with counter-narrative to disinformation by terror groups, institute studies to understand the impact of social media on society and ensure safety and security of the country’s citizens.
There are many examples of how social media has been used to great effect for political purposes. The 2011 demonstrations across the Arab world were facilitated by the social media. It was Al Jazeera’s airing of user generated content that displayed the power of social media. In essence, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Al Jazeera came together to facilitate the mobilization in Arab world, Dr Gupta added.
The rise of social media is changing the dynamics of soft power strategies of governments. Most governments have used this new media in public diplomacy for their own interests. It has already had a distinct impact on governance. And governments need to reach out to people and listen to them. It is a potent tool of two-way communication. With 400 m users, India is the second largest country using internet, the Deputy National Security Adviser pointed out.
Here follows the full summarized text of his address to the sessions;
I. Introduction
Social media has ushered in the age of hyper-connectivity. Billions of users are on social platforms. Millions of apps are being used to enhance the reach of social media.
According to some estimates:
• In 2016, 68 percent of Internet users used social media
• There were 97 million LinkedIn users,
• 316 million Twitter users,
• 400 million used Instagram,
• 1 billion were on WhatsApp,
• 300 million used Skype,
• 1 billion used YouTube,
• And 1.5 billion used Facebook,
These are staggering numbers considering the world's population is 7 billion and Internet penetration is about 35 percent. According to one Cisco estimate, by 2019, one million minutes worth of videos will be uploaded every second. An average man would need 5 million years to watch all videos to go up each month.
All age groups use social media but young take to social media like fish to water. A study indicates that 86% of the 18-29 years old use social media every day. Similarly, 72% of young adults and 87% of teens use text message every day.
Defining Social Media
Social media refers to a set of online platforms that are designed for and centred around social interaction. In practice, social media serves as a catch-all phrase for a conglomeration of web-based technologies and services such as blogs, micro-blogs (i.e. Twitter), social sharing services (e.g. YouTube, Flickr), text messaging, discussion forums, collaborative editing tools (e.g. wikis), and social networking services (e.g. Facebook, MySpace) (Hansen, Shneiderman, & Smith, 2011).
Social media is now ubiquitous. It has yielded immense benefits to society. In future, social media's reach is likely to grow further. At the same time, social media presents many challenges to national security.
The national security agencies have to learn the new methods to dealing with national security issues in the age of the instant hyper-connectivity.
Social media is empowering and liberating. That is why so many people get attracted to it. It shapes self-perception and identity. It gives voice to those who are otherwise not heard. Social media is changing the behavioural patterns in society. Social media is challenging existing models of influence as well as existing hierarchical structures.
II. Social media and Soft Power
The rise of social media is changing the dynamics of soft power strategies of governments. Most governments have used this new N media in public diplomacy and for influencing social and political environments to serve their own interests. Social media has already had a distinct impact on governance. It is -11 becoming indispensable to governance. Governments need to reach out to people and listen to them. Social media is an ideal vehicle to do so. It is a potent tool of two way communication which is ushering in new models of social interaction.
with 400 million users, India is the second largest country using Internet. Over One billion subscribe to cell phones. As a result, Indians are taking to the use of social media in big numbers.
Presently, there are 216.52 million social media users in India'.
College students (33%) forms the largest demographic of active social media users.
India is the largest market for Facebook outside of the US. Facebook has over 142 million users in India, of which about 133 million access the social media platform through their mobile phones.
The government has identified 22 initiatives under its flagship programme Digital India programme for development. Social media is being leveraged to increase awareness regarding implementation of government programmes. Social media has been used with great effect at the time of disaster relief operations within and outside India. During the recent Yemen evacuation and during the Chennai flood relief operations, social media was used effectively.
The External Affairs Minister herself used social media to reach out and rescue the people who were stranded in conflict zones. The ministry of external affairs uses social media for public diplomacy.
PM Modi, with twitter following of over 22 million is a consummate user of social media. The prediction is that he will have 25 million followers in the next 3 months and 30 million within a year. He keeps in touch with citizens using a variety of means like the radio programme Mann Ki Baat, but also social media.
Political parties in India use social media for high octane electioneering campaigns.
Social media has become an ideal vehicle for e-commerce. According to Industry body Internet and Mobile Association for India (IAMAI), the e-commerce market in India is expected to nearly double to Rs. 2,11,005 Crores (around $ 33 billion) by end of 2016. A number of e-commerce giants in India are using social media platforms to sell their goods and services.
From the humble post card to WhatsApp and Skype, communication has come a long way. TV and newspapers take cue from social media to set their stories.
Social media is faster than the conventional media and has far greater reach. Social media today shapes the traditional media's agenda and priorities. All media channels and newspapers have their Facebook and twitter accounts.
III. Social Media and National Security
Social media with massive diversity contains largely unstructured data of very high volumes delivered at lightning speeds. No one entity controls it. Often the communication on many social media is strongly encrypted. Encryption provides relative safety in communication.
Social media also provides anonymity if. This has encouraged many anti-social and terror movements to take to social media with tremendous consequences for national security. Virtual communities thrive in social media. Reaction times to events are in seconds. It is very easy to mobilise opinion on social media.
Terrorist groups have used the social media innovatively and with great skill. They use social media for recruitment, training, and propaganda. They are able to target the young people on social media platforms with their extremist ideologies. According to some estimates, the terrorist groups conduct over eighty percent of their activities on social media.
For terrorists, act of terrorism is an act of communication. For them the Message matters, not the victims. Al Qaeda has created a 'Jihad Cloud'. For terrorists, new media is a transformative tool presenting endless possibility for communication and for reaching out to a large vulnerable target audience.
Why do people join terror groups?: For revenge, for status, for identity and for their thrill and adventure. Terrorist groups have invented several video games allow people to become terrorists. Such games help radicalise young minds.
According to experts, ISIS has a distinct and effective media strategy - Jihad 3.0:
Use Islamic symbols, language and rhetoric of the Caliphate
Present its charitable side • Present the image that ISIS is strong and resilient
ISIS is "hippest", "punk rock", "pop jihadist"
Use social media for Propaganda and Misinformation
Made media centres: Al Hayat, Al Furcian, Al ethar
The Deep Web and the Dark Net, which is invisible to common search engines provides excellent hiding places and safe havens to terrorists and anti-social elements to carry on their nefarious activities. Few state security agencies today have the capability to penetrate the sites buried in the dark net. Anything from drugs to arms are available in the dark net. Transactions in the dark net are settled using crypto currencies like bitcoins which are outside the banking systems.
There are many examples of how social media has been used to great effect for political and purposes.
The 2011 demonstration across the Arab world were facilitated by the social media. Protestors were mobilised using social media tools. Arab Spring is also being described as a "Twitter/Face Book Revolution". It was Al Jazeera's airing of user-generated content from the small town of Sidi Bouzid (200 miles from Tunis) that displayed the power of social media. As an activist in Cairo stated, "we use Facebook to schedule protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to the tell the world". In essence, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Al Jazeera came together to facilitate the mobilisation in Arab World.
Bring Back Our Girls twitter forced international leaders and the international community to take note of the issue of girls kidnapped in Nigeria by Boko Haram.
Pray for Paris generated 8 million tweets in November 2015 following the Paris Terror attack that killed 130 people, which indicates the level of outcry against the killings.
The images of a dead Syrian refugee child on the beaches of Turkey went viral on social media and forced the European government to admit refugees fleeing conflict in the Middle East.
In 2011, in India the circulation of false images on the social media led to a temporary exodus of the people of North East working in Bengaluru to their villages. Calm was restored only after the government clarified the situation.
Such examples can be multiplied.
Hate ideologies and false images are routinely used on the social media platforms to cause communal and ethnic disturbances.
Response of the Government
Faced with numerous security challenges arising out of the unbridled use of social media, security agencies are also adapting to the new age communication medium.
They are using the social media for putting out information and counter narratives. Experience has shown that people are wary of information put out by the government. The information put out by the Government needs to be authentic and accurate.
Social media opens up a new type of tension between interests and values, between rhetoric and reality. Discourse in social media is susceptible to manipulations by vested interests which may undermine the basic values of the society. Credibility suffers due to this tension. Government needs to leverage social media to disseminate the correct and true information to ensure credibility of the message.
Social media is proving to be a good source of information and analysis for security agencies, as well. Security agencies are using Big Data techniques to analyse the information streaming through the social media platforms. They are able to conduct 'sentiment analysis' of the opinions on the social media. This gives them a good idea of how to be ready to deal with law and order situations or security problems.
Governments, short of requisite technical capabilities are partnering with private agencies for their technical needs.
Access to data is, however, not easy. Most data resides on servers located outside national boundaries. Governments seek cooperation of the socio media companies on whose servers data resides to deal with cyber-crime and terrorism. Such cooperation is however tenuous and uncertain. Most social media companies are reluctant to share data on account of various concerns including that of privacy.
Most countries have the legal provisions to shut down the social media sites at the time of crisis. Social media agencies are often requested to take out offending contents. This often leads to opposition from citizens and even legal challenges.
Some countries have taken recourse to banning certain social media platforms outright and instead propagate national social media platforms which can be controlled easily through national legal and technical means. But quite often social media companies are resistant to requests for bans or shut down of sites.
National security is the responsibility of the governments. They have to find the necessary ways and means to protect national security which also includes citizens' security.
Some governments are rightly concerned that social media can be used to destabilise regimes. This issue is being discussed at international fora but the international opinion continues to be divided.
The UNGGE came up with a norm last year that nations enjoy sovereignty over information infrastructure located in their territories. This means that they will have jurisdiction over information residing in their territories and that passing through their territories. But it is often difficult to enforce such provisions in cyber space.
Privacy issues and the freedom of speech are centre stage in the debate about the controlling information in cyber space. Most countries accept that freedom of speech is not absolute and unrestricted. A right balance between the piracy on the one hand and national security has to be found.
The UNGGE has also recommended that the provisions of international law should apply to cyber space as well. This implies that human rights of the individuals should beprotected in cyber space. Most countries agree to this but it is difficult to enforce this norm in cyber space.
What should be done?
There is no unanimity amongst experts on how to deal with the vast amount of terrorism related content circulating on the social media platforms.
While debates about cyber norms go on, national security agencies can do several things to ensure that national security is protected against misuse of social media.
Nations should have a clear national legal framework, compatible with international norms, ensure a balance between national security needs and the need to protect the right of citizens. Within the framework of these laws, social media monitoring can be done.
Some of the steps that can be taken include:
Building technical capacities to monitor social media for information, content, and sentiment analysis on the basis of Keywords-based filtering and extraction, geo-tagging of data, emotion detection and evaluation, user interface visualisation.
Use of automated tools for social media monitoring.
Acquiring capabilities in Big Data analytics.
Conclusion
To sum up:
There is a need to balance the needs of national security, citizens' rights, overall economic and social well-being while crafting strategies to deal with the negative impact of social media on national security.
Governments need to build requisite infrastructure to respond to citizens' needs, come up with counter-narrative to disinformation spread by militant and terror organisation and ensure safety and security of its citizens.
There is need to institute studies to understand the impact of social media on society. This will help security agencies to deal better with the national security implications of social media.
Thank you.
