The Challenge of Fighting Terrorism Online

Fighting terrorism online is a relatively new and controversial topic, especially after the released findings from Edward Snowden and the warrant-less surveillance conducted by the NSA.  One such problem that arises is the diversity within the ISIS fighters themselves.  The number of foreign fighters that have joined terror groups continues to rise. According to the The International Center for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence or ICSR exceeds 20,000 fighters. (icsr.info/foreignfighter)  France, Germany and the United Kingdom produce the largest number of fighters.  From a cultural aspect the diversity within these terror groups has become difficult to narrow down because of the melting pot of different ethnicities and cultures their coming from.  Many of these people begin communicating and discussing ISIS propaganda online.  The George Washington University based a study on terrorist’s related arrests within the U.S. and the American authorities have arrested nearly five dozen people in one year alone.  “The individuals range from hardened militants to teenage girls, petty criminals and college students,” said Lorenzo Vidino, the director of the university’s program on extremism, which conducted the study. “The diversity is staggering.” (cchs.gwu.edu) 

With all these potential risks the U.S. government is exploring different ideas and programs to establish an algorithm that can detect possible ISIS targets and members of that community.  The U.S. government is running between a fine line between surveillance on ISIS propaganda and the warrantless surveillance that was leaked by Snowden a few years earlier.  The government has started a program dubbed “Madison Valleywood Project” in which American tech companies, media organization and PR forms met behind closed doors with the Justice department.  Finding common ground between National Security and Invasion of Privacy has been a fragile topic.  Many citizens view government surveillance as not only unethical but illegal while members of the NSA view it as necessary to protect them people and the country.  Within this gray area the government has proposed an algorithm that determines a score for possible terrorist reported individuals.  This possible solution has different flaws that could affect the outcome of prosecuted cases.  After the incident with Apple and the FBI many tech companies have become weary of this upcoming ideas.

The American people have grown discontent with the government over the NSA’s surveillance program that was whistle blown by Snowden. I agree with the position in which these algorithmic programs will cause more problems to the system and the integrity of the country than help in locating terror suspects.  When Project Prism was released in which the NSA was gathering and collecting bulk phone records many officials were curious of the success of the Prism program.  The director of the NSA Gen. Keith Alexander claimed that the data collected from the NSA programs helped prevent “dozen of terrorist events.”  However Sens. Ron Wyden and Mark Udall released a statement contradicting Gen. Alexander’s comments.  "Gen. Alexander's testimony yesterday suggested that the NSA's bulk phone records collection program helped thwart 'dozens' of terrorist attacks, but all of the plots that he mentioned appear to have been identified using other collection methods.”  This two senators both serve on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and have access to the nation’s most sensitive secrets.  Today many possible terror attacks are thwarted by the use of informants.  The American public are not privy to all the information that top officials have access too.  From previous knowledge the NSA has abused surveillance on the American people and as far as public knowledge these programs have had more controversy than success.  Why would an algorithm program have higher success rates than the Prism program?  When we allow the government more and more access to our personal information, where do we as the American public draw the line, and once we have begun down this road of 24/7 surveillance and big brother watching what’s to stop them from gaining more explicit access.

   Bergen, Peter. "Did NSA Snooping Stop 'dozens' of Terrorist Attacks?" CNN. Cable News Network, 18 June 2013. Web. 22 June 2016.