Twitter and Terror: Social Media and Social Chaos

‘Question is how much longer will terrorist put innocent Afghan in harms way?’ It was long time coming, but the social media front has now opened up as a means to wage war in Afghanistan. That message came from @ISAFmedia. The retort from @ABalkhi, which, like most tweets, is torturous reading: ‘@ISAF media I dnt knw.u hve bn pttng thm n “harm’s way” fr da pst 10 yrs.’ The balance of that message implies that the ISAF forces in Afghanistan have been more than happy to raze villages and markets.

As you might be able to tell, the latter message came from channels associated with the Taliban who have to, it seems, regularly change their accounts given the terms of use stipulated by social media outlets. Having said that, they seem to be doing a fairly good job of making use of the service. Numbers are exchanged with opponents, statistics traded, lies and deceptions alleged. Propaganda, in short, has become instantaneous and reciprocal. We can now believe that international forces will tweet their way to victory in Afghanistan. The amused and depraved – take note.

Twitter, precisely because of its operating style, has become an attractive way of virally spreading information. The infections have had their desired effects, though the person tweeting might have regretted the initial move. Social media is making the establishment jittery. Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan and Jordon Blackshaw both find themselves serving four-year prison sentences for having committed acts of social media hooliganism – inciting people to riot in Manchester. Evidently, Blackshaw’s appeal for spontaneous revolutionary zeal was minimal – in setting up a Facebook event ‘Northwich Town on Facebook’, only he, and the police, turned up to the party. Presumably, his attempt to befriend them on the network failed.

Gilberto Martinez, a private school teacher and Maria de Jesus Bravo Pagola, a radio presenter, face 30-year prison terms in Mexico for having made false claims. This in itself would hardly count – other than the fact that those claims suggested that gunmen were attacking schools in the south-eastern part of Veracruz. (Pagola did herself no favours in describing herself as a ‘TwitTerrorist’.) The authorities evidently think rumours kill people.

Panic ensued. Car crashes resulted from anxious, hysterical parents making a dash to the schools. Social media had done its trick. The interior secretary for Veracruz State, Gerardo Buganza, found disturbing parallels in the prank, seeing Orson Welles’ 1938 ‘War of the Worlds’ broadcast in the same vein. Buganza was also happy to play the fool as well, vengeful against Martinez and Pagola for having become emissaries of social chaos. ‘There were 26 car accidents, or people left their cars in the middle of the streets to run and pick up their children, because they thought these things were occurring at their kids’ schools’ (Guardian, Sep 4).

The defence the accused have mounted has been logical. They were merely using a medium to spread what was already in the system. Rumour begets rumour, and in an age of ghastly tweets, those rumours have rapid purchase. Pagola, speaking through her lawyer, explained the absurdity of the charge and harsh reactions. ‘How can they possibly do this to me, for re-tweeting a message? I mean, it’s 140 characters. It’s not logical’ (Guardian, Sep 4). People have lost their lives for less.

After his 1938 broadcast, Welles took amusement in the reports of mayhem that ensued. ‘If you had read the papers the next day, you would have thought I was Judas Iscariot and that my life was over.’ Pagola might well have been a twit, but to see her and her social media comrade as terrorists is simply another manifestation of how a ridiculed establishment behaves. Such establishments, when mocked, can only respond violently.

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.

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