How Al-Qaeda-Linked Terror Group Uses Facebook, Other Social Media To Recruit …

The terrorist group Ansaru discovered ways to circumvent the platforms’ weak human and automated monitoring systems. An Al-Qaeda-linked terror group in Nigeria has been caught violating social media regulations while spreading jihadi propaganda, recruiting members, and gathering sympathisers. Despite social media companies’ efforts to remove terror-related content, the terrorist group Ansaru discovered ways to circumvent the platforms’ weak human and automated monitoring systems. They have had the freedom to gather audiences and create a false image of themselves by using local languages to push themselves on potential recruits through propaganda messages reaching millions of young people in the country, HumAngle reports. Ansaru meets Facebook’s definition of a terror organisation and leaked internal documents obtained by The Intercept in 2021 show that Ansaru is on the platform’s watchlist of 1,050 terror organisations and violent non-state actors. However, by simply posting their content in Hausa, they have managed to avoid detection by social media regulations to influence thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people. Over the course of a months-long investigation, HumAngle tracked 22 accounts linked to Ansaru, which were used to spread Al-Qaeda propaganda and messages in Hausa. This demonstrates the inability of social media platforms to remove terrorist content.
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