Jihadis try to make friends on Facebook

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/12/facebook-jihadis

The closure of major jihadist websites since 11 September this year has forced forum members to consider alternative internet platforms to host their discussions and propaganda material. On 10 December a leading member of one of the few surviving forums, al-Faloja, suggested the movement launch an "invasion" of Facebook. The social networking site was used by Obama, who won an election. Couldn't the jihadists achieve similar success?

A week later, the invasion seemed over. The Facebook group set up by the jihadists, called Knights of al-Nusra Invasion (Fursan Ghazawat Alnusra), was banned. A former "radical" alerted Fox News to the group, who pressured the company to close it down. This fledgling attempt to harness social networking tells us quite a lot about the jihadists themselves, but also about the usefulness of such websites for political movements of any cause.

At first glance, Facebook promised much to the jihadists. While it remains a mystery who closed their forums, members reasoned that intelligence agencies could hardly close Facebook. If members or groups were banned, jihadists could just set up more membership accounts. It seemed a secure platform for persuading others of the jihadist cause. One member of al-Faloja suggested the jihadist Facebook invasion was "not to introduce jihadi forum members to Facebook, but to introduce Facebook users to jihadi forums". Another added, "we will be able to reach the American public opinion and make it see the facts its administration is trying so hard to hide".

There were reasons not to dismiss this as bluster. The Obama campaign had shown how a Facebook campaign could overcome the difficulty of turning passive supporters into active ones. Such social networks have low barriers to entry. By framing members of Obama Facebook groups as "stakeholders", it became easier to convince them to donate money. In theory, jihadists could use Facebook to tap into latent, passive supporters around the world: people who might contribute their money and, just as importantly, their address books. The geographic dispersion of jihadists around the world would be irrelevant. Social networks count. However, the Obama campaign's striking success lay in the way Facebook and the campaign seemed to emerge and grow together. To create a buzz, a sense of being part of a new phenomenon testing uncharted waters, a political movement can't just use existing, familiar media. It is unclear whether joining a Facebook jihadist group offers sufficient novelty to potential supporters around the world.