Fergie's Tech Blog

Four Horsemen Alert: Can Extremist Web Sites Be Stopped?

A Reuters newswire article by Michael Holden, via PC World, reports that:

From behind a computer keyboard at his London home, student Younes Tsouli used the Internet to spread al Qaeda propaganda, recruit suicide bombers and promote Web sites that encouraged the killing of non-Muslims.

The Moroccan-born student and two accomplices, one of whom he had never met in person, went on to become the first to be jailed in Britain for inciting terrorism over the Internet.

In September, a Scottish student described as a "wannabe suicide bomber" was imprisoned for eight years for owning terrorism material and distributing it via Web sites.

The two cases are examples of what Western authorities believe is the dangerous and growing role the Internet plays in spreading extremist propaganda and recruiting sympathizers to Islamist militant causes.

More here.

Note: The "Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse" is a term originally coined by Bruce Schneier, referring to terrorists, drug dealers, kidnappers, and child pornographers, and the ways in which governments can frighten the public into granting it additional powers it doesn’t really need. - ferg

Image source: Sheri Gordon

posted by Fergie @ 11/06/2007 12:54:00 PM