Osama bin Laden fan clubs build online communities
More scaremongering, this time from USA Today (article by Kasie Hunt): Al-Qaeda sympathizers are using Orkut, a popular, worldwide Internet service owned by Google, to rally support for Osama bin Laden, share videos and Web links promoting terrorism and recruit non-Arabic-speaking Westerners, according to terrorism experts and a survey of the sites. It then goes…
More scaremongering, this time from USA Today (article by Kasie Hunt):
Al-Qaeda sympathizers are using Orkut, a popular, worldwide Internet service owned by Google, to rally support for Osama bin Laden, share videos and Web links promoting terrorism and recruit non-Arabic-speaking Westerners, according to terrorism experts and a survey of the sites.
It then goes on to discuss Reporters Sans Frontieres, online terrorist videos and bans of the Orkut community by Iran.
Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom advocacy group, notes in a recent report that Internet use has grown faster in Iran than in any other Middle Eastern country, largely because of its political potential. “Weblogs are much used at times of crisis, such as during the June 2003 student demonstrations, when they were the main source of news about the protests and helped the students to rally and organize,” the group’s report says.
People chat and whinge and threaten and gossip in online communities the same way they do in real life – more so, in fact, as retribution is less likely. The “Osama” community has at most 2000 members, out of perhaps 13 million in the Orkut community. Thats not many anti-Americans when you think about it! Reporters Sans Frontieres here and Orkut ditto.
Technorati Tags Online Communities, Orkut, USA Today, Kasie Hunt, Reporters Sans Frontieres, Osama bin Laden
Well I am sure that there are people in the US monitoring this activity for terrorist potential.
But should the US and west be alarmed? Sure the internet can inflame and incite, and many worry about the anonymity it offers. But, it is a transparent medium if you want to use it to analyse opinion.
Perhaps some qualitative researchers should be employed so the western world can gain a better understanding of why it is hated so much amongst the (tech savvy) Islamic fundamentalists. Perhaps some programs related to promoting cultural understanding could be developed.