Author: M Barbu

House Homeland Security Committee Takes Aim at Tech Industry’s Failure to Halt Spread of Online Extremist Content

GIFCT Criticism Reiterates Need for Industrywide Standards for Online Extremist Content Removal.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing on social media companies’ efforts to counter online terror content and misinformation. The hearing was called in the wake of March’s New Zealand mosque shootings—in which a terrorist killed 51 people and livestreamed it all on Facebook. A full 24 hours after the livestream, Facebook failed to remove 300,000 reuploads of the attack video. A week later, and then a month later, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) discovered that the video was still widely available. Tech’s failure to prevent reuploads of known terrorist content sheds light on the failings and ineffectiveness of the industry-led Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT).

Terror in Tunis

  • On June 27, the Tunisian capital of Tunis was rocked by twin suicide blasts that killed one police officer and injured many others.
  • One of the explosions hit a bus carrying Tunisia’s presidential guards, while the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack via Amaq news agency.
  • The attack occurred the same day that Tunisia’s 92-year old president, Beji Caid Essebsi, was admitted to the hospital with an unspecified but serious illness, thrusting the country into upheaval and political instability.
  • Tunisia has been hailed as a country that successfully navigated the post-Arab spring period of political transition in North Africa, though significant demographic, security, and economic challenges have prevented further progress.

On June 27, the Tunisian capital was rocked by twin suicide blasts that killed one police officer and injured many others, including members of the security forces and civilians that were in the vicinity at the time of the bombings. The first attack took place close to the French Embassy, while the second occurred in the Qarajani district, close to several government and internal security buildings, including the complex belonging to Tunisia’s anti-terrorism brigades. The most recent attacks are likely to have a negative impact on tourism, a critical source of income for a country with an economy already mired in crisis.

Extremism Spotlight: Abdullah al-Faisal’s Ties To Extremists

ISIS Propagandist has Radicalized and Inspired Dozens Toward Terrorism and Violence.

Abdullah al-Faisal is a U.S.-designated Islamist propagandist who has recruited for ISIS and facilitated travel to ISIS-held territory. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, in announcing his indictment, said Faisal’s lectures, websites, and videos have incited “untold numbers of people around the world to take up the cause of jihad.” New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill echoed similar sentiments, saying Faisal “has used his influence and direction to groom and inspire terrorists who have bombed trains, attempted to blow up airliners and attack Americans here and abroad.”

HOUTHI REBELS STEP UP ATTACKS AGAINST SAUDI ARABIA

Bottom Line Up Front:

Since April, Houthi rebels have conducted at least ten separate missile or drone strikes on Saudi targets, including airports, oil pipelines, and other energy infrastructure.

Despite boasting the world’s third largest military budget, the Saudis’ Patriot missile-defense system has performed inconsistently in the face of mounting Houthi attacks.

Boko Haram in Buhari’s speeches in 2015 and 2019 [Data and content analysis]

Presidential inaugural speeches give heads of states with a periodic opportunity to renew their social contract with their people. Carefully crafted and pored upon for, perhaps, weeks before their delivery, such political rhetoric are expected to leave sweet tastes in the mouth of their audience. Quotable quotes, take-away promises, renewal of hope, paradigm shifts and critical data that support government’s renewed zeal are the usual components of such epoch-making speeches. Some of these were not well-pronounced in President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech in 2019.

The US Should Designate Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Organization

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, is a pro-jihad, Islamist movement that has branches throughout the world and seeks to implement Islamic sharia under a global caliphate. Terrorism is only one of the methods the Brotherhood employs, and among its, goals, “democratization” has never been seen as one of them.

THE U.S.-IRAN CRISIS

The U.S. and Iran are close to a conflict that would have no clear end and could quickly spread throughout the Middle East and beyond.

Iran has acquired leverage by building proxies and allies into politico-military forces, arming them with short-range missiles, rockets, and other weaponry.