The use of social media to promote and incite hate, violence and prejudice is also not new. From ISIS to politicians elected into office through populist, prejudiced campaigns, social media is foundational in contemporary terrorist recruitment and political propaganda. Terrorists know and now increasingly exploit it, weaponising the unending global popularity of social media to seed and spread their ideology in ways that no existing form of curtailment, containment or control can remotely compete with. The scale of social media is the hook, with the inability to oversee and inadequacies around governance, weaponised. What is true of social media in Sri Lanka, my home and the central focus of my research, doesn’t always hold sway in New Zealand.

Source: Stuff March 20, 2019 02:26 UTC