Countering Radicalisation & Terrorism –Role of Social MediaConcepts and Experiments in Kerala

S.Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar ,IPS

Basic Concepts

Social Media

Radicalisation

Terrorism

De-Radicalisation

Counter Radicalisation

6. Execution Of Terror Plans

2.Crowd Sourcing

3.Recruitment

4.Training

5.Communication

Filtered

Out

Recruitment

.

Abuse of Social Media

1. Propaganda

Approaches use of SM in Countering Radicalisation & Terrorism

PositiveCounter Narratives

Psychological ops

Awareness Campaign

De- Radicalisation

Counter Radicalisation

Involving Public, Civil Society & Good Samartians

Boosting Public Confidence

Negative ( Controlling)Disruption of computer

& Systems

Information Source

Means of Communication

Supporting Communities & Network

Controlling/Restricting

Filter, Block, Take down

Social media Companies to Act & RespondOn their ownOn request by LEA

Filtering..AI,Machine learning Image matches Text , contents, matching., hashtags Clusters.. Groups

Remove content or block it

Group of Twitter, Facebook,you tube, Microsoft.. extended now.

Situational criminal prevention.. effect.

Use of other strategies

Twitter out links

Smaller platforms..cost of filtering, too many take down requests

Other platforms

TelegramWhatsApp

Darknet

Other activities

Through away accounts...

Widely used

Social Media Analytics - SOCINT

Intelligence Collection

Counter Narratives

Psy-Ops

Awareness Campaigns

De- Radicalisation

Counter Radicalisation

Involvement of Public

Boosting Public Confidence.

Use of SM to Counter Radicalisation

Identify

Ideology

of Violent

Extremist

Organizati

ons (VEO)

Identify

whom is

at risk of,

or being

targeted

for

radicalizat

ion

Identify

social

processes

involved

in

radicalizat

ion

Identify

driver(s)

implimented

in

radicalization

process

Contextual

factors

What ?

Development and dissemination of counter

narratives

By Whom ?

How ?

Measure ?

Goverment Credible

Messenge

Online Offline

Positive Negative

Approches

&

Methods

Countering Violent Extremism/ Terrorist Organization Programme Structure

Source: Davis et al (2016:62)

Social Media Analytics

Collection of IntelligenceLeaders, motivators, supporters

followers, potential terrorists, targetted audiences

Variety of Tools available Facebook, twitter, whatapp…

Intelligence leads..

01

02

03

04

Monitoring

Targetting

Investigation

Disruption or

arrest

Integrate with

other

approaches

Counter Narratives

The Messenger

The Message

The Media

Experience & Experiments in Kerala

Experience and Experiments in Kerala

1. Kerala Scenario

2. Factors Contributing to the Radicalisation in Kerala

3. Case Studies

4. De- Radicalisation Programme of Kerala Police

A. Individual Based

B. Locality Based

Factors contributing to the Radicalisation in Kerala

Historically since the time of Clash with Portuguese, arrival ofTippu sultan, Malabar rebellion and Hindu – muslim conflicts in19th and 20th century the state has the history of Conflicts.

Large chunk of unemployed youth, close link with the gulfcountries - employment and returnees have ideological influence.

Youth are trying to counter the emptiness in their lives by seekingsolace through different kind of over religiosity. The influencedyounger generation are mostly not from a religious background.They feel like learning about religion later in life, and turn to theinternet and social media but 99% of what they find ismisinterpretation of Islam.

They fall for the propaganda, become part to the crowd sourcingand getting radicalized. Neo-converts who are often swayed bysocial media/online propaganda and radicalised, rather than thosewho grew up studying Islam from their childhood.

1. Kasargod ISIS Case - 2016

• Seventeen persons have left India for physically joining Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

• Investigation of the Kasargod District, Chandera PS Crime No. 534/2016 dated 21.07.2016 under Section 38 and 39 of UA (P) Act, 124A of IPC Reveals the involvement of one Mr. Abdul Rashid as accused No. 01.

• The accused, who have left India are continuing their anti-national activities by propagating the ideology of and inviting support for ISIS, through various means including, but not limited to, internet-based social media platforms. Telegram Audio Messages

2. Kanakamala ISIS case 2016• Five persons within Chockli police Station limits of Kannur district,

Kerala were arrested on 2nd October, 2O16 while they were holding aconspiracy meeting as part of their preparation to wage war against theGovernment of India. Search - materials including digital devices anddocuments were seized .

• Among the other details , the investigation of the case revealed that,the accused persons had conspired and propagated ISIS ideologydirectly and also through their social media accounts in Facebook,Telegram etc. For the purpose of propagating the ideology of ISIS andrecruiting members for anti-national activities the accused persons hadcreated various Telegram groups namely "The Gate", "Bab Al Noor","Darul Fiqr", "Kudumbum", "Play Ground" etc.

• The migrated person contacted his brother over phone and socialmedia application Telegram to inform through messages including voiceclips, that he had joined Islamic State.

• So much so the youth have left their families and travelling abroad tofight for the ISIS.

• The investigations reveal the wide use of Social media platform such asfacebook, telegram for propaganda and training and teaching themethodology to migrate.

Analysis……. Riyas Aboobacker :

Involved in ISIS Kasargod Module case. He has been radicalized by one Zahran Hashim of Srilanka, Salafi

Preacher and mastermind of Srilankan Easter Day Blast throughFacebook.

Riyas was in constant touch with Ashfaq Majeed and Rashid Abdullah(keralites who joined ISIS) through Telegram.

Riyas was even ready to become a fidayeen and to explode himself.

Nashdil Hamsafar :

Wayanad Native Nashidul Hamzafar was On arrested on 18.09.2018 byNIA after he was deported to Delhi from Kabul, Afghanistan, for illegallyentering the country and attempting to join ISIS.

He was attracted to ISIS ideologies, by his friend Shihas who used toshow the video clips of certain radical Islamic preachers like Zakkir Naik,Bilal Philips, Norman Ali Khan, Mukthiman Ahmad Musa Jaberial etc.

The testimony given by the above two persons to the investigation agenciesgive a clear picture on how they were radicalized through digital media.

Method Of Radicalisation on Social Media

Posting of radical speeches, audios, ISIS related news,documents etc. ,through social media.

Beginning of personnel chats with those memberswho are highly religious and who commented insupport of the ISIS ideology.

Verification of the target persons.

Sending of ISIS documents through personnel chats.

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOLLOWED BY ISIS SYMPATHIZERS.

1. Ansar Ul Khilafa Kerala, Facebook Group

2. Ghuraba Ghuraba - FB

3. Right Thinkers – FB

4. Da’wah/Call to Allah – FB Page

5. Islamic States Telegram Group

6. Al Ribaat Telegram Group

7. Freedom – Telegram Group

8. Al Emarah – Telegram Group

9. Hindustan Jhahedi – Telegram

10.Green Birds – Telegram

11.Lone Wolf - Telegram

12.The Light of Quran – Telegram

TELEGRAM

DE-RADICALISATION PROGRAMME, KERALA

Reasons for the increase in the religion basedRadicalisation.

influence of Internet based religious studies and

influence of various religious scholars who arekeeping extreme views and

secret organizations and also in tune with worldtrend.

Individuals who have stayed abroad or workedabroad also has a chance to get radicalized byextremist organizations or by individualspropagating fundamentalist ideology.

Individual based De-radicalisation Program (OPERATION PIGEON)

• Joint Initiative by intelligence wing of Kerala police with the assistance of CPOs focusing on bringing back the youths, who have been radicalized or likely to get radicalized.

• A detailed analysis was made on the propagation of a pro-Islamic State messages and audio clips on social media that urges youth in the state to follow ISIS ideology.

• The probe was initiated after reporting of two Whatsapp groups founded by Abdul Rasheed, who joined the terror group. These WhatsApp groups and kept sending messages to more than 450 youths of Kerala and neighboring states, whom he had added to the groups.

De-radicalisation

Identification

Social Media

Monitoring

Cells

Social Survey

Counselling

Follow-up

of individual through social media monitoring and through field intelligence

Services of Exclusive social media monitoring cell was utilized for identification of targeted individual and area.

Social survey by police, field intelligence through confidential interaction with Muslim scholars, mosque committee members, prominent persons, political party workers etc

by elders, parents, officials and even by religious scholars.

Confidential - Intelligence

01

05

04

03

02

OPERATION PIGEON…• Under Operation Pigeon, the WhatsApp accounts of those

persons who were showing interest in ISIS ideology or any other terrorist group were kept under close watch.

• The team then met community elders and parents of the youth who were very responsive and co-operative.

• Later, these youth who were identified as vulnerable were counselled by elders, parents, officials and even by religious scholars.

• The combined team verified 317 persons from various districts of Kerala in a short span of time. Most of the members in the WhatsApp group ‘Message to Kerala’ are northern districts of Kerala. (Kasaragod district - 65, Kannur district - 105, Malappuramdistrict - 84, Kozhikkod district - 22)

Criticisms

Counter radicalization and de radicalization programs are conducted only with regard to Islamist radicalization, at the expense of extremism found in other communities.

At present the program aims at only office bearers of mosque and Imams who are already taking classes against radicalization.

Mainly youth are vulnerable to radicalization and they are reluctant to hear the kuthbas of Imams in mosque. Without addressing them and conveying the message of de radicalization to youth the program is of not much use.

Law Enforcement Agencies has tobe vigilant, tap the right side of the Social mediaand fight radicalization in the virtual world with thethree pillars of Social media Analytics,Involvement of Public (The Majority) and CounterRadicalisation & Deradicalisation efforts.

Thank you

Update

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/kerala-woman-among-surrendered-is-

members/article30079517.ece