The EU’s response to the use of social media by terrorist organizations

Abstract

Although terrorism is a global concern, in recent decades it has become more of a public discussion topic as a result of significant media coverage. People all across the world are well aware of the worldwide repercussions of terrorism, particularly in light of the recent rise in transnational terrorism. When we hear about terrorism, the first thing that usually springs to mind are the devastating atrocities carried out by terrorist organisations, but there is more to terrorism than these vicious assaults on innocent people. Terrorist organisations have recently capitalised on the advent of social media platforms, which have revolutionised how people interact and are better informed in real time about what is occurring across the world. They are doing it in a variety of ways. The EU has to act in reaction to this in order to limit the use of social media by terrorists. This dissertation is entitled ‘The EU’s response to the use of Social Media by Terrorist Organizations'. The goal of the study is to gain a better understanding of how social media sites, terrorist organisations, and the EU are related. Two key things will be examined in order to do this. The first aspect is a thorough analysis of how and why terrorist organisations use social media sites, and the second is how and why the EU is responding to stop this from occurring in Europe. The discussion and data collection tools were made using qualitative methodology. This data identified how and why terrorist groups are using social media to promote their cause in Europe and what is the EU doing to combat the use of social media as a weapon by terrorist groups and why it is responding in the way it is doing. After the research questions were answered, suggestions and recommendations were given on how the EU should move forward to make sure that social media platforms will not be used by terrorists to promote their cause to EU citizens.