Week 8 Assignment SEC 310 – Case Study 2: Social Media
Social media platforms have contributed largely in various social and economic aspects contributing to a significant transformation in modern society. However, there are negative issues that have emerged from the continuous use of social media platforms such as terrorism and the spread of hate crimes. Researchers carried out a study showing that over 90% of organized terrorism activities take place via social media (Blakemore, 2021). Terrorists use mass media platforms to communicate with one another especially when they are in different locations. Another way through which terrorists use mass media platforms is spreading terrorism threats to their targets. Concerning the issue of hate crimes, social media has become a platform where people are sharing hate crimes targeting specific individuals. Hate crimes can be in form of negative information concerning an individual or a group of people.
Social media can play a significant role in the radicalization process in modern society. Radicalization is the process where a society develops extremist ideologies that seek to reject the fundamental principles and values of a democracy (van Eerten, Doosje, Konijn, de Graaf & de Goede, 2017). The main role that the mass media can play is conveying grievances, rumors, and other testimony from an individual or a group of people to the target audience. Another role is that social media increases the speed of radicalization in society. This situation means that radicalization can occur faster in a society characterized by increased use of social media platforms than in a society that doesn’t use social media platforms.
One of the ways through which law enforcers can use to monitor social media sites that people use to propagate terrorism and hate is through digital counter-terrorism. Digital counter-terrorism is a strategic part of the counter-terrorism framework that seeks to detect and control terrorism activities (Blakemore, 2021). Through digital counter-terrorism, the law enforcement agency can monitor social media platforms in tracing any form of terrorism or hate crimes communication. A good example through which law enforcers can use digital counter-terrorism is through counter-messaging which passes positive information concerning negative propaganda.
The agency that is responsible for investigating hate crimes is the Federal Bureau of Investigation since hate crimes are different from other crimes. Moreover, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a civil rights program that focuses largely on hate crimes (Levin & Reitzel, 2018). Over the years, the Federal Bureau of investigation traces hundreds of hate crimes every year and works to detect and prevent cases of hate crimes from emerging. Initially, the jurisdictions of the Federal Bureau of Investigations limited its investigations concerning hate crimes but later the Hate Crime Prevention act of 2009 extended the FBI’s jurisdictions.
References
Blakemore, B. (2021). Policing Hate Crimes and Terrorism in the Digital Age. The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Policing, Communication, and Society, 337.
Levin, B., & Reitzel, J. D. (2018). Report to the nation: hate crimes rise in US cities and counties in time of division and foreign interference.
Van Eerten, J. J., Doosje, B., Konijn, E., de Graaf, B. A., & de Goede, M. (2017). Developing a social media response to radicalization: The role of counter-narratives in the prevention of radicalization and de-radicalization.
