The Internet in Indonesia: Development and Impact of Radical Websites

Abstract

The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) was established in January 2007 as an autonomous School within the Nanyang Technological University. RSIS's mission is to be a leading research and graduate teaching institution in strategic and international affairs in the Asia Pacific. To accomplish this mission, it will:• Provide a rigorous professional graduate education in international affairs with a strong practical and area emphasis• Conduct policy-relevant research in national security, defence and strategic studies, diplomacy and international relations• Collaborate with like-minded schools of international affairs to form a global network of excellence Graduate Education in International AffairsRSIS offers an exacting graduate education in international affairs, taught by an international faculty of leading thinkers and practitioners. The teaching programme consists of the Master of Science (MSc) degrees in Strategic Studies, International Relations, International Political Economy, and Asian Studies as well as an MBA in International Studies taught jointly with the Nanyang Business School. The education provided is distinguished by its focus on the Asia Pacific, the professional practice of international affairs, and the emphasis on academic depth. Over 150 students, the majority from abroad, are enrolled with the School. A small and select Ph.D. programme caters to advanced students whose interests match those of specific faculty members.

Tackling cyber-terrorism: Balancing surveillance with counter-communication

“…The number of websites associated with Al Qaeda increased from 12 in 1998 to more than 2600 by 2006 (Jacobson, 2010). Recognizing that terrorism online is not limited to violent jihadis alone, research in this area highlights the featuring of information on military skills and tactics, as well as bomb-making, firearms and hacking manuals on (often password-protected) websites, which has fuelled the electronic jihad (Hui, 2011). Using euphemistic language and distorting sequences of events, users of these online spaces seek to displace responsibility (a 'natural' response arising from situational pressure), diffuse responsibility (for example, the out-group must be to blame), dehumanize victims, attribute blame (that is, perpetrators view themselves as provoked victims) and use advantageous comparisons (for example, comparing a successful symbolic attack to the attacks by a well-equipped army) to justify their deeds.…”

“…For example, former Al Qaeda-affiliated Jemaah Islamiyah operative Imam Samudra, who was convicted for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings, openly encouraged his followers to hack and exploit the vulnerabilities of US computer networks to aid credit card fraud and money laundering (Jacobson, 2010). Although providing one's current location as being in a different country became common practice on forums, blogs and even non-extremist radical websites (Hui, 2011), terrorists seem to be so confident about their own Internet security that many of their websites are openly hosted by companies in the United States (Jacobson, 2010).…”

“…Thus, new information and communication technologies (ICTs) open up innovative operational vistas for extremists and terrorists alike, affording them opportunities to communicate, and develop a sense of common purpose by combining both intimacy and remoteness (Back et al, 1998). Given the perception of the mass media as having been dominated by Western propaganda, the radical websites, for example, explain their mission in terms of correcting such propaganda and revealing the true picture (Hui, 2011). Allowing for the diffusion of command and control, which the Far Right have long been proponents of, 4 ICTs provide unprecedented benefits, interconnectivity, anonymity, cheapness, power enhancement and new audiences (Whine, 2011), which are clarified in the following paragraph.…”

“…The rapidly increasing number of extremist websites portraying the perceived injustice committed against Muslim communities, for example, legitimize the post-9/11 movement and serve as inspiration for stoking radical sentiments, glorifying acts of martyrdom against (the Western) infidels (Hui, 2011). The cyber-fatwas posted on such websites that openly promote terrorist acts (Weimann, 2011) only make the matter worse.…”

“…Although cyberspace can facilitate 'traditional' terrorist attacks (Whine, 2011;Jacobson, 2010;Hui, 2011;Tsfati and Weimann, 2002), it also allows for their reduction and prevention (Lyon, 2003;Amble, 2012), albeit not with online surveillance alone. Despite the increasing capacity of the Internet for surveillance and user identification, which also challenges the privacy and non-discrimination rights, posing challenges for democracy, the rule of law and cross-border cooperation (Wagner, 2007;Brown and Korff, 2009), it appears that cyber-terrorist attacks will become extremely effective and even more difficult to trace back to the source (Rogers, 2008).…”