Abstract
Nava Nuraniyah’s chapter provides readers with an in-depth analysis of Indonesian Islamic State supporters’ activity on the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Nuraniyah explains that when it comes to choosing an online platform, extremists have four main criteria: user-friendliness, free of charge, security and privacy, and leadership initiative. By tracing the evolution of the extremist online community since the early 2000s, she demonstrates the role of local and international leadership in dictating the direction of online jihad and in setting up the channels and websites used by their followers. With regard to Indonesian supporters, the main function of these types of social media groups has been “about accelerating individuals’ radicalisation process through intensive socialisation”, not about encouraging lone wolves. Nuraniyah concludes by highlighting the need for a more targeted online counter-narrative effort.
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Notes
- 1.
Analysis: Islamic State media output goes into sharp decline. 2017.BBC Monitoring. Accessed from https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dnnj2k
- 2.
Winter, Charlie. 2017. Is Islamic State losing control of its ‘virtual caliphate’? BBC.com. Accessed from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41845285
- 3.
These were the Sarinah bomb attack on 14 January 2016, the police stabbing in Tangerang on 20 October 2016, and the Kampung Melayu bombing on 25 May 2017.
- 4.
Polisi Awasi 600 WNI diduga berafiliasi ke ISIS, siapa mereka? 2017. Tempo.co. Accessed from https://nasional.tempo.co/read/889807/polisi-awasi-600-wni-diduga-berafiliasi-ke-isis-siapa-mereka
- 5.
Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC). 2015. Online activism and social media usage among Indonesian extremists. IPAC Report 24. Available on http://file.understandingconflict.org/file/2015/10/IPAC_24_Online_Activism_Social_Media.pdf
- 6.
IPAC. 2014. The evolution of ISIS in Indonesia. IPAC Report 13. Available on http://file.understandingconflict.org/file/2014/09/IPAC_13_Evolution_of_ISIS.pdf
- 7.
Rachel. 2014. Lagi, baiat untuk ISIS dari Indonesia. Accessed from http://liputanislam.com/berita/lagi-baiat-untuk-isis-dari-indonesia/
- 8.
Berger, J. M. and Morgan, Jonathan. 2015. The ISIS Twitter census. Brookings Analysis Paper 20: 17. Accessed from https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/isis_twitter_census_berger_morgan.pdf
- 9.
For more on Ummu Sahara’s background, see Nuraniyah, Nava. 2017. Migrant maids for jihad. The New York Times. Available on https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/opinion/isis-jihad-indonesia-migrant-workers.html
- 10.
Telegram, 1 September 2016.
- 11.
In 2014, Facebook had 58.5 million users and Twitter only 12 million. Also, Indonesia was among the top five fastest-growing markets for WhatsApp in 2013. Social media in Indonesia: big numbers with plenty of room to grow. 2016. Accessed from https://www.clickz.com/social-media-in-indonesia-big-numbers-with-plenty-of-room-to-grow/94062/; Grazella, Mariel. 2013. WhatsApp: RI strong market in usage, growth. The Jakarta Post. Accessed from ttp://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/06/24/whatsapp-ri-strong-market-usage-growth.html
- 12.
Abu Saed Al-Britani alias Omar Hussain was a British ISIS foreign fighter and prolific propagandist and recruiter. Abu Isa Al-Amriki and Ummu Isa Al-Amriki were an American couple who helped Indonesian and international extremists who sought to travel to Syria. In 2015, they arranged a safe house for some Indonesian women in Turkey before they could get to Syria. The couple was reportedly killed in an airstrike on 19 April 2016. See Scarborough, Rowan. 2016. American woman key in Islamic State recruitment killed with husband in airstrike. Washington Times. Accessed from https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/2/umm-issa-al-amrikiah-female-american-isis-recruite/
- 13.
It did not start in 2015, as some pundits suggested. See, for instance, Frampton, Martin et al. 2017. The New Netwar: Countering Online Extremism. London: Policy Exchange. Available on https://policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/The-New-Netwar-1.pdf
- 14.
Ibid.
- 15.
Bohlen, Celestine. 2016. Does the messaging service Telegram take privacy too far? New York Times. Accessed from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/world/europe/telegram-isis-privacy-encryption.html
- 16.
Prucha, Nico. 2016. IS and the Jihadist Information Highway – Projecting Influence and Religious Identity via Telegram. Perspectives on Terrorism 1 (6). Available on http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/556/html
- 17.
More on migrant workers’ radicalisation, see IPAC. 2017. The Radicalisation of Indonesian Women Workers in Hong Kong. IPAC Report 39. Available on http://file.understandingconflict.org/file/2017/07/IPAC_Report_39.pdf
- 18.
Agoya, Vincent. 2016. ISIS suspect in planned anthrax attack charged. Daily Nation. Accessed from http://www.nation.co.ke/news/ISIS-suspect-charged-in-Nairobi-court/1056-3234954-12tfc4c/index.html
- 19.
Khilafah News was banned in the aftermath of Paris Attack.
- 20.
Telegram, 1 September 2016.
- 21.
Interview with Syamsudin Uba and some participants of his study group, Jakarta, 27 July 2015.
- 22.
IPAC. 2017. Mothers to Bombers: the evolution of Indonesian women extremists. IPAC Report 35. Available on http://file.understandingconflict.org/file/2017/01/IPAC_Report_35.pdf
- 23.
Lomas, Natasha. 2015. After Paris Attack, Telegram purges ISIS public content. Tech Crunch. Accessed from https://techcrunch.com/2015/11/19/telegram-purges-isis-public-channels/
- 24.
Nuraniyah, Nava. 2017. Indonesia’s Telegram ban: who’s the real target? Indonesia at Melbourne. Available on http://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/indonesias-telegram-ban-whos-the-real-target/
- 25.
- 26.
An in-group comparison was not possible because Khilafah Islamiyah was already banned by November 2017.
- 27.
For a comparison of men-only vs. women-only group chats, see Nuraniyah, Nava. 2017. Online Extremism: The Advent of Encrypted Private Chat Groups. In Jurriens, E. and Tapsell, R. Digital Indonesia: Connectivity and Divergence. 2017. Singapore: ISEAS.
- 28.
There is a caveat to the categorisation as discussion topics sometimes overlap. For example, when one man asked for advice about whether he should quit his job at a company owned by some “Chinese infidel” (personal issue), it suddenly turned into a discussion about whether stealing from his boss would count as fa’i or robbery for jihad (religious), and other members encouraged him to take the infidel’s money before he quit (incitement) (Telegram, 10 September 2017).
- 29.
Telegram, 10 September 2017.
- 30.
On ISIS’ eschatological narrative, see McCants, William. 2014. Islamic State invokes prophecy to justify its caliphate claim. Brookings.edu. Accessed from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2014/11/05/islamic-state-invokes-prophecy-to-justify-its-claim-to-caliphate/
- 31.
Telegram, 23 November 2017.
- 32.
Telegram, 4 December 2017.
- 33.
On Bahrun Naim and his Telegram networks, see IPAC. 2016. The failed Solo suicide bombing and Bahrun Naim’s Network. IPAC Report 30. Available on http://file.understandingconflict.org/file/2016/08/The_Failed_Solo_Suicide_Bombing_and_Bahrun_Naim%E2%80%99s_Network.pdf
- 34.
See, for instance, Osman, Sulastri. 2010. Jemaah Islamiyah: Of Kin and Kind. GIGA Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 29 (2): 157–175.
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Nuraniyah, N. (2019). If You Can’t Sacrifice Your Life, Sacrifice Your Data: Online Activism of Indonesian ISIS Supporters. In: Jayakumar, S. (eds) Terrorism, Radicalisation & Countering Violent Extremism. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1999-0_10
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