Asian Terror Groups Take To Social Media To Fund, Recruit, Grow

Homegrown terrorist groups in Southeast Asia, some which have pledged loyalty to ISIS, are using encrypted forms of communication used by terror groups worldwide to plan and carry out attacks, raise funds, and spread their ideologies to attract new members,
say counterterrorism experts.

Extremists are using social media like Facebook and Twitter and mobile apps, such as WhatsApp and Telegram that allow its users to conceal their telephone numbers and encrypt their chats.

Social media is also being used for communications particularly between the Middle East and Indonesia, as well as among ISIS loyalists in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, said terrorism expert Sidney Jones, the director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC).

While ISIS has not yet set up a foothold in Southeast Asia,(this conflicts with later mention of ISIS-assisted attack in Jakarta) there is a growing concern among counter-terrorist experts about a rise in ISIS-inspired jihadist groups in the region and the extremist organization looking to set up a wilayat, or province, to spread its terror network. This, experts warned, would create new security concerns for continued political stability and economic development of the region.