The Dark Side of Social Media: Review of Online Terrorism

Dr. Geoff Dean, Peter Bell and Jack Newman

Abstract
This paper lays the conceptual foundation for understanding the significant role that social
media can and does play in relation to spreading the threat and growth of terrorism,
especially ‘home-grown’ terrorism. The utility of social media applications (eg. Facebook,
Twitter, You Tube) to recruit, communicate and train terrorists is explored through the
perspective of Knowledge-Managed Policing (KMP). The paper concludes with the
implications this conceptual analysis of terrorism as a new dot.com presence on the internet
has for law enforcement and the global cyber community.