A senior Google employee has said that in order to fight Daesh, the extremist group should be forced out of the open web. Jared Cohen, the company’s head of ideas, argued that Daesh is using the same internet that “we all enjoy,” and therefore “success looks like ISIS (Daesh) being contained to the dark web.”
Daesh’s use of websites such as Twitter, as well as other social media platforms and forums, has enabled the group to recruit new members and promote its cause. Its online reach allows it to target vulnerable groups in order to push an extremist agenda.
While it may be possible to push Daesh-related accounts out of social media websites, the group will never be taken off of the entire internet due to the complexity of the dark web.
However Cohen argues that getting rid of Daesh from the open web is a good way to tackle the group’s propaganda and online infrastructure. He suggests that Daesh exaggerates its size as it has more online accounts than it has members.
Cohen said that shutting down Twitter accounts related to the group is one method which should continue to be employed.
“But while the digital front is more complex, it could be where we can see greater short-term wins, so we should not neglect it,” he said.
He said that if people were afraid of promoting Daesh online, then they may not use social media platforms to promote the extremist cause.
