The social media use of African terrorist organizations: a comparative study of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram

János Besenyő,Gábor Sinkó

doi:10.9770/ird.2021.3.3(4)

Abstract

The objective of this qualitative study is to raise awareness of the online presence of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), al-Shabaab and Boko Haram by analyzing and comparing their social media activities. The decision that the above-mentioned terrorist organizations shall be selected for inclusion was based on the fact that (I.) they are active in Africa, (II.) they are currently or affiliated with three of the deadliest international terrorist groups in the continent and (III.) they use social media in order to achieve their goals. I conclude that social media is used by all three of the studied terrorist organizations with special attention devoted to mainstream social media platforms, namely Twitter, YouTube and - to a lesser extent - Facebook. Additionally, AQIM, al-Shabaab and Boko Haram seem to have primarily used social media for propaganda purposes, although it was also utilized as a recruitment tool, albeit to varying degrees. Finally, I believe social media can also be used for coordination and funding by the studied terrorist groups; although the small amount of publicly accessible evidence entails qualitative problems, indicating the fact there is room for further research.

Highlights

The dominance of information and communication technology in Africa has both advantages and disadvantages, since on the one hand it could promote development in the economic, political and social spheres (United Nations General Assembly, 2013), while on the other hand it has the potential to pave the way for the rapid growth of terrorists’ use of social media
Social media is used by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), al-Shabaab and Boko Haram in the African continent
The significance of media communications with regards to the strategic objectives of the terrorist organizations is highlighted by the creation of their specific media wings, such as AQIM’s al-Andalus Media, al-Shabaab’s al-Kata’ib Media Foundation and Boko Haram’s Media Office of West Africa Province

Summary

Introduction

The dominance of information and communication technology in Africa has both advantages and disadvantages, since on the one hand it could promote development in the economic, political and social spheres (United Nations General Assembly, 2013), while on the other hand it has the potential to pave the way for the rapid growth of terrorists’ use of social media. Africa Muslima was created with the specific purpose of introducing a wider range of topics with its propaganda messages that were quite different from the communiqués of the group’s media wing content-wise It was “an open platform for every Muslim” destined to provide “support and cooperation to the cause of the Muslim nation generally and African [nation] in particular” (AQIM, 2013). Instead of relying heavily on textual materials they included photos in almost third of their communiqués (27%), which was in sharp contrast with the percentage of online social media messages of al-Andalus Media that had embedded pictures (5.5%) Another difference between the first and second Twitter profiles of the group was their disparate focus. It is important to mention, though, that benefitting from its presence on online media was getting increasing difficult in 2015 after Twitter had adopted a strict policy about suspending profiles connected to jihadist terrorism

The Social Media Use of Al-Shabaab

The Social Media Use of Boko Haram

Findings

Conclusion