Social media platforms such as Telegram in particular are increasingly being misused for their own purposes by terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (IS). Abdullah Alrhmoun and his team from the Central European University in Vienna have in a recently published study how IS uses Telegram bots to strengthen its network and spread propaganda.
The role of bots in spreading propaganda
Bots, or more precisely social bots, are programs that imitate human behavior and act autonomously. They offer enormous potential for misuse and manipulation because they are hardly recognizable as such to users of the platforms. “With the use of bots, there is a shift from human-generated to automated information – with the result that more content can be published,” says Alrhmoun. These bots are used systematically by IS to strengthen and secure the network by repeatedly publishing content and thus reaching more and more people.
The risk of further development of bots
A look into the future shows that the potential of bots is far from exhausted. Alrhmoun points out that Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, could make bots even more dangerous in the future by giving them a kind of creativity, i.e. the ability to create their own content. This enables “almost unlimited distribution” of terrorist and manipulative information.
Call for stronger regulation
In view of these alarming findings, Alrhmoun calls for the use of bots to be regulated more strictly. Both government security authorities and social media platforms should consider how to limit the use of bots as a tool of IS and other terrorist groups. Although there are already channels like “ISIS Watch” that educate and inform about banned terrorist content, this is far from enough. Ways must be found to identify terrorist bots and stop their activities.
Functions of bots within the IS network
So far, Alrhmoun's research has shown that bots within the IS-Telegram community fulfill three main functions:
- Publication and promotion of IS content
- Moderation of discussions
- Management of groups
These activities help to sustainably strengthen and expand the IS network. The team analyzed over 1.2 million public Telegram posts and was able to identify 106 bots that were active or mentioned in a total of 98 different groups and 37 different channels.
Conclusion
The study by Alrhmoun and his team highlights a troubling aspect of modern technology: how terrorist groups like ISIS use social media platforms and bots to achieve their goals. Given the potential dangers posed by these technologies, it is crucial that both governments and social media platforms take action and develop strategies to prevent and combat the misuse of bots. This is the only way to tame the “dark side” of this technology and ensure that it is only used in ways that benefit society.
Source:
Study “Automating Terror: The Role and Impact of Telegram Bots in the Islamic State's Online Ecosystem”
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