Terrorist Migration to Social Media
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Science&Technology
Terrorist Miaration to Social Media
Gabriel Weimann
On the evening of I March 2o1, Arid Uka, an Albanian
Muslim living in Germany, was online looking at YouTube
videos. Like many before him, he watched a jihadist video
that resented the gruesome rape of a Muslim woman by U.S.
soldiers-a clip edited and posted on YouTube for jihadi
propaganda purposes. Within hours of watching the video,
Arid Uka boarded a bus at Frankfurt Airport, where he killed
two U.S. servicemen and wounded two others with a hand-
gun. After he was arrested, investigators reviewed the history
of Arid Uka's Internet activity. It showed-most obviously in
his Facebook profile-a growing interest in jihadist content,
subsequent self-radicalization, and ultimately his viewing of
the aforementioned video, which led him to take action in
an alleged war in defense of Muslims. Arid Uka was not a
member of a terrorist organization, nor had he visited any
of the infamous training camps for terrorists. His entire
radicalization, from early attraction to jihadi preaching to
the final deadly mission, was accomplished online. Arid Uka
is just one of many cases of the new trend of terrorists being
engaged through the newest online platforms, commonly
known as the new media or social media. As cyberter-
rorism expert Evan Kohlmann argues:
Gabriel Weimann is a
Full Professor of Com-
munication at the Uni-
versity of Haifa, Isra-
el. Previously, he was
a Senior Fellow at the
Woodrow Wilson Cen-
ter in Washington DC.
[180] Georgetown Journal of International Affairs](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/geojaf16&div=24&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Terrorist Migration to Social Media
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