'Terrorist' Use of the Internet: An Overblown Issue

Abstract

The role of the Internet in promoting transnational recruitment for armed groups ; particularly "terrorist" organisations ; is often taken for granted. In reality ; the evidence is far from clear-cut. Research on how contemporary armed groups use the Internet suggests that they themselves view the Internet with considerable suspicion. Such accounts ; however ; fail to take account of an arguably more important question: whether those groups which make extensive use of the Internet have actually been more effective in causing violence than groups which have either chosen not to use it ; or which were operating before it came into existence.