An Analysis of the Electronic Jihad's Activity in the Social Media Environment

Abstract

The present text offers an analysis of the electronic jihad strategies based upon the Twitter campaigns of the Somali jihadi-Salafi group Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mudjahideen. The text builds on a post-structuralist conceptualization of temporality, which, when met with virtual environments, becomes a key source of power. The text first introduces a theoretical argument discussing the influence of temporality on the international system in order to apply the resulting conclusions towards an empirical analysis of the revisionist discourse disseminated by the selected extra-systemic actor. The aim of the text is to hint at the analytic potential of certain data collection methods that are employable in the environments of virtual social networks and consequently to demonstrate one of the possible methods of interpretation of such data. This method is inspired by a specific set of expressive devices which, in an apt way, connect the methodological approach with the interpretation of the revisionist world order discourse. The presented analysis in the context of the specific examined terrorist campaign illustrates a revisionist dynamic that is accelerated by the virtual domain and aims at disrupting the normative foundation of the Westphalian order.