WELL aware of the immense popularity of social media websites and apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram among the Kingdom's youth, terrorists are exploiting social media to spread their propaganda and gain fresh recruits. To counter the blatant abuse of social media websites, experts say organized online campaigns are needed to stop terrorist groups' influence and expose them and the crimes they commit, Al-Riyadh daily reported. Dr. Dakheel Al-Dakheelallah, professor of social psychology at King Saud University, said terrorist groups are able to easily influence young social media users but he also said disillusionment with social circumstances and even poor employment prospects are contributing factors. "It is easy for terrorist groups to get through to a young man and convince him to join them and engage in terrorist activities. Individuals who are distracted and disillusioned by social circumstances are easy prey for terrorist predators," he said. "Such victims will fall right into their trap and believe in their propaganda. We need a foolproof national strategy to dig deeper into the real causes that make some young men carry out terrorist activities. We need to understand and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of our young people's personalities. Most importantly, we need to create job opportunities and design programs that help them spend their time constructively," he added. Maj. Gen. Salih Al-Malik, an assistant professor at Naif Arab University for Security Sciences, said part of the problem was the reckless media coverage of terrorists by certain newspapers and TV channels. "Some newspapers only care about scoops and they will go to any lengths to get the most sensational scoop. Terrorist groups should not get media coverage at all and the media should not contribute to increasing their viewership," he said, while explaining terrorist groups use the media to get their message across to as many members of the general public as possible. "They yearn for the media coverage and therefore we should not give them this chance," he added while calling on the media to put the greater interests of the country before their interests and provide objective coverage of terrorist activities without blowing things out of proportion. Dr. Jamal Al-Tamimi, professor of communications and media, Naif Arab University for Security Sciences, said the use of social media sites by terrorist groups is alarming and something worth studying and analyzing so extremists can be stopped. "Social media sites have proved to be difficult to control and many governments are finding it hard to fight terrorist groups on social media. Most groups have fine-tuned the way they use social media and now post videos and statements openly calling for violent uprisings," he noted. "Certain media outlets depict terrorists as heroes, further increasing their profile. Young people fall for these tricks and some begin to view terrorists as role models and even imitate them. In order to fight these groups online, the media should design programs that convince the public of the brutal acts committed by these groups. It is not going to be an easy task and the media tools need to be constantly developed in order to guide citizens to respect the laws and regulations and be aware of the dangers posed by terrorist groups," he added.
