When Hatred Goes Viral: Inside Social Media’s Efforts to Combat Terrorism

Scientific American ------ On New Year’s Eve in 2015 local and federal agents arrested a 26-year-old man in Rochester, N.Y., for planning to attack people at random later that night using knives and a machete. Just before his capture Emanuel L. Lutchman had made a video—to be posted to social media following the attack—in which he pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. Lutchman would later say a key source of inspiration for his plot came from similar videos, posted and shared across social media and Web sites in support of the Islamic State and “violent jihad.” Lutchman—now serving a 20-year prison sentence—was especially captivated by videos of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric and al Qaeda recruiter in Yemen. Al-Awlaki’s vitriolic online sermons are likewise blamed for inspiring the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers and several other prominent terrorist attacks in the U.S. and Europe over the past 15 years. Officials had been monitoring Lutchman’s activities days before his arrest and moved in immediately after he finished making his video—which was never posted, and ironically ended up serving as evidence of his intention to commit several crimes. To get more in depth information click on the picture below to read the article.