Mapping Jihadi Ecosystems Across Social Media Platforms

Clarion Project

Mapping Jihadi Ecosystems Across Social Media Platforms

Caution against taking our eye off these extremists while focusing on domestic terrorists and COVID

by Shireen Qudosi

Even though the Department of Homeland Security just identified white supremacism as the most persistent and lethal threat facing the United States today, former al-Qaeda propagandist Jesse Morton cautions that we still need to be weary of jihadi ecosystems.

Discussing why it’s important to keep a focus on jihadism as the counter terror focus shifts to domestic violent extremism, Morton sat down with Dr. Michael Krona to discuss jihadi propaganda across social media networks.

Krona is an assistant professor at Malmo University and focuses on Islamic State propaganda. He is also the co-editor and author of The Media World of ISIS.

Morton was an active extremist with al-Qaeda from 2003 through 2011 who now runs Light Upon Light and Parallel Networks, where he builds alternate systems of belonging for deradicalized extremists.

In an hour-long podcast, Morton and Krona speak about the evolution of jihadi ecosystems in terms of media communications, the role of social networks in extremist recruitment and the future of the jihadi war against the West.

The Evolution of Jihadi Propaganda

Morton and Krona trace the evolution of jihadi media over the last 30 years, beginning in the ’90s with the advent of the worldwide web.

Full story https://clarionproject.org/mapping-jihad-ecosystems-on-the-social-web/