Recently, a Facebook Page was set up by Pakistani Taliban so that they can recruit like-minded people to write for their quarterly magazine, called Ayah-E-Khilafat (or Sign of the Caliphate) and to do editing job for the threatening videos they send out. The kinds of articles they are seeking consist of topics covering themes such as “Jihadi current affairs”, history and Islamic movements and Muslim societies’ challenges.
Their Facebook Page operated under the title of the Umar Media TTP. So far, it had reportedly received 270 Likes. It has been operational since September and had a few messages. Facebook’s activities are always part of media coverage and where else could one get a quick and better exposure than on Facebook. By advertising their vacancies online through Facebook, TTP had exposed themselves very vulnerably.
One wonders if their move had been deliberate to see who takes notice of them on Facebook. Comprehending this fact in its entirety, TTP took the route for recruitment on Facebook until their new website became active. According to US-based SITE Intelligence Group, the Facebook Page served as a recruitment centre. Due to the threatening potency of the Facebook Page, the social network has taken it down.
Although, the extremist group is making it easier for the authorities to track them down, the page has been considered as no means to work in favour of the intelligence agencies in counterterrorism. Social media is relatively a safe place for law-abiding citizens to surf on, despite cybercrimes increasing in number it should in no way be made a platform for recruitment for terrorists. Thus, Facebook made its own network safer by taking down TTP’s page. However, there are said to be other inactive Facebook Pages created in favour or in support of TTP and Afghani Talibans, which may also serve to gather TTP’s violent force.
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