Digital World War: Islamists, Extremists, and the Fight for Cyber Supremacy

Event Terrorism
Event Terrorism

November 29, 2017 Digital World War: Islamists, Extremists, and the Fight for Cyber Supremacy

Lone wolves, recruitment and radicalization. How is ISIS using social media and digital outreach to infect our society and push would be extremists to the edge?

Wednesday, Nov 29, 2017

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

The Heritage Foundation

214 Massachusetts Ave NE
Washington, DC
20002

Author

Haroon Ullah

Dr. Haroon K. Ullah serves as Chief Strategy Officer at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an $800 million global media agency. He is a scholar, diplomat and policy practitioner with a special focus on digital strategy, countering violent extremism and transmedia engagement. Haroon most recently served on Secretary Tillerson’s Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department. He teaches at Georgetown University and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as senior Harvard University Belfer Fellow, has an MA and PhD in international political economy, and was a William J. Fulbright Fellow, a Harvard University Presidential Scholar, and a Woodrow Wilson Public Service Fellow.

Description

Lone wolves, recruitment and radicalization. How is ISIS using social media and digital outreach to infect our society and push would be extremists to the edge? Is there a solution to detect this kind of content and kill it before it kills us?

 

Social media has dominated the discourse of recent events in the Muslim world – from the Arab Spring to ISIS’s online recruitment and the recent deadly attack in Manhattan. Yet the roles of social media in these events and the use of the dark web, hacking, and digital attacks are still largely misunderstood. Identifying key trends across the Muslim world, Dr. Haroon Ullah posits what a proper understanding of social media can teach us about regional and international politics and diplomacy.