Up to date, terrorism remains a global issue that nations
are facing today. Islamic State
s
extremist groups have taken advantage of the anonymity of the online platform
to execute their operations, such as propagation of their ideology, terrorist
recruitment, fund raising and training-i.e. how to build a bomb
. (UNODC, 2012)
. It is challenging to trace and eliminate
all
these terrorist activities with the rapid sharing of terrorist related
materials that are easily accessible on social media websites (Conway M.,
2007)
.
Number of terrorist related
websites has increased tremendously, from 12 in 1998 to nearly 10,000 today.
(Weimann G., 2007). In addition, online forums and
chat rooms have allowed these terrorist groups to disseminate
terrorist related information such as agenda and operation of the terrorist
groups and answer queries that sympathizers of terrorist group had virally. (Harf
M., 2015)
High internet penetration of 73% in Singapore has
allows for the rapid
dissimulation of terrorist
s materials
throughout
the nation. (We Are Social, 2015) Majority of the Malay population in Singapore
is Muslim, and makes up 13.3 % of the total population (Statistics Singapore,
2010). Therefore, it is vital that young people receive proper preaching to
prevent them from being self-radicalized by the vast amount of terrorist
material online.
In order to keep terrorism on social media on bay,
Singapore’s
government ha
s taken a proactive and preventive measures, which includes
,
regional dialogues, religious group counselling, internet surveillance and
censorship.
Extensive social presen
ce of terrorists on the social media ha
s required nations to discuss and devise strategic counter terrorism measures to
keep terrorism under control. Regional dialogues between terrorist experts and
regional leaders include discussions on the radical preaching on social media.
This
has
promoted a
more comprehensive counter terrorism measures towards terrorism on social media
and a strengthen cooperation between the nations.
Religious group counselling is also a counter measure that
the Singapore’s government have devised to counter
against radical preaching on
social media. The Islamic Religious
Council of Singapore (MUIS), which is in charge of the welfare of the Muslim
community in Singapore, ensures that the Muslim community Singapore
receives accurate and proper Islamic teaching. MUIS has set up
various websites to educate the general public about Islam and its practices.
These websites include,
www.iask.com.sg,
www.invoke.sg,
www.radical.mosque.sg. In addition,
Religious Rehabilitation Group (RPG), headed by a group of Islamic scholars and
teachers, allows vulnerable teenagers that are taken in by false belief
s
by the extremist
s on the social media to seek counselling
helps
. (Ustaz A., n.d.)
.
Internet surveillance and censorship also
act as deterrence against
propagations of terrorist ideology. As part of an initiative to counter against terrorism,
the Internal Security Department Counter-Terrorism Centre (ISD CTC) was
established in April
1998. The ISD CTC is mainly involved
in the monitoring and investigation of terrorist activities or incident
s,
including terrorist threats online. A 24
- hour
s
incident response centre was even set up to provide immediate response to
security incidents. Intelligence gathered from cases of security incidents will
be collected and stored by the ISD CTC for further evaluation and analysis of
traces of terrorist activities. In addition
, as a
means to identify and assess new emerging threat
s to
national security, the Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning (RAHS) was
developed and launched by the National Security Coordination Secretariat in
2004. Analytical tools such as SKAN and Vanguard are part of the software that
RAHS had developed, enabling the modelling and monitoring of emerging strategic
solutions.
These control measures that are devised by the Singapore’s
government are only preventive measures to counter radical preaching on the
social media and not the root solution to elimination of radical preaching on
the social media. Therefore, apart from the various control measures that
Singapore’s government
has devise against terrorism, personal
initiative from the public can aid in the fast identification
of potential targets of people radicalized by terrorism. Furthermore, regular
roadshows and educational talks about terrorism can be conducted in schools and
cooperation. This can help to educate the public of the significance of
terrorism and how they can contribute to deter against terrorism.
In conclusion, it may be impossible to stop the radical
preaching of terrorism on social media due to their abundancy. Nevertheless,
coupled with counter terrorism measures such as regional dialogues, community
engagement, internet surveillance and censorship and personal initiative,
we can limit the operations of radical preaching of
terrorism on social media.
·
Chen, R. The Straits Times. (2015, Jan) Terrorism: How prepared is Singapore?.
pp D2-D3
