Terrorists hiding in the virtual worlds

Ahmed Sami Abdel-Fatah

Security authorities in different world countries are deeply concerned that terrorists have gone into hiding in the virtual worlds and social networking sites to elude a global massive hunt. Top sites such as Facebook and Twitter have gained notoriety for providing safe environment for Jihadists to pursue their terrorists activities. Concealing their identities behind fake names, chief ideologists and leaders of terrorist groups managed to brainwash large number of teenagers and young people across the world. In addition to gaming console, social network sites are acting as platforms for extremist preachers and as forums for radical discourse.

Worse, online communications enhanced a direct operational role for terrorism-related purposes, such as motivating prospective cadres to action, recruiting Jihadist operatives and fighters; providing virtual training in tactical methods; and financing terrorist activities.

The growing threat of online Jihadists has prompted security authorities to break the taboo, drawing up regulations or negotiating with makers of virtual worlds to help launch online hunt for Jihadists and their sympathizers.

Manoeuvring to escape from their hunters, Jihadists and their preachers sought terror-related video games as extraordinary platforms to foment violence in the community of teenagers and young people, whose population is estimated at tens of millions.  However, children and teenagers are most vulnerable to Jihadist ideology stuffed cryptically or directly in the video games.

Terror-related video games attracted the attention of terrorists in September 2006 when al-Qaeda’s World Islamic Media Front produced “Quest for Bush”,  whose goal is to fight American soldiers through six levels and eventually kill the US President George W. Bush. “Quest for Bush”, a modification of “Quest for Saddam”, was released by Petrilla Entertainment in 2003.  “Quest for Bush”, which highlights Al-Qaeda’s ultimate aim: the destruction of the United States, also fuels the user’s hatred to the US. Accordingly, teenagers and young people, who are embracing hostile attitude towards this country, would be easily seduced to abandon their virtual world and plan real-life attacks on US targets.

Also, Al-Qaeda released a video game simulating the 9/11 attack to stress to both its adversaries and its fighters that its threat remains substantial, regardless of ceaseless air strikes by the US following its invasion of Afghanistan in 2009.

In 2014, ISIS launched “Clanging of the Swords”, a video game created to raise the waning morale of their fighters after the group failed to realize their pledge to establish the Muslim caliphate. The new environment was also recommended after Jihadists planned infrequent attacks by individual fighters on targets far off their strongholds to  confuse the intelligence services. Jihadist preachers and leaders have real fears that idle fighters deployed far off their strongholds would rebel and flee  their training camp to tuck their heads under the cloaks of more powerful rival groups.  Accordingly, terror-related video games are regarded as an environment, which helps fighters give vent to their pent-up violent feeling.

“Clanging of the Swords” gives the user access to a closed room and behead a man inside. The victim is wearing an orange outfit. In addition to its violent message, “Clanging of the Swords” is fomenting hatred to Shi’a.  The game is also encouraging the user to enjoy videos showing ISIS’s real-life beheading of its victims.

Entering the fray, the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah produced a 3D video game branded as “the Holy Defence… Protection of the Country and Sacred Sites”. Hezbollah’s video seeks to fuel the user’s spirit of fighting. The video  features sacred sites, such as the Sayeda Zeinab Shrine in Damascus, which were destroyed during the Syrian war. It is apparent that the [Shi’a] user(s) is encouraged to fight Takferis (Jihadists) in revenge for the destruction of Shi’a holy sites.

Hezbollah’s video game stresses the importance of the images of holy shrines in agitating its fighters and sympathisers to rise and defend these places.  It is apparent that Hezbollah imported the theme of its video from the message of “Freedom Fighter”, a video game produced by the United States to deepen its role as the guardian of global freedom and democracy in the face of threats and terrorism represented by the old Soviet Union.

“Call of Duty” is another agitating video game launched by Western makers of the virtual worlds. The message the video is broadcasting encourages the user(s) to seek violence in his/her defence to national interests and goals. However, it remains unsubstantial whether fans of “Call of Duty” or “Freedom Fighters” would give vent of their violence outside the virtual world.

On the other hand, to refute Western allegations against their ideology, extremists produced video games featuring Muslims being the victims of Western aggressors; and calling upon the user, irrespective of his/her faith, to launch revenge counterattacks. The example is “Umma Defence”, which features an exterritorial attack in 2114 to undermine  the Muslim caliphate, which has been established  on the planet.

The video seeks to stir up the user’s enthusiasm to defend the values of humanity and the innocents. In the meantime, its message is that peace has been prevailing in the world under Islam. In other words, the video’s misleading message is that founders [Jihadists] of the Muslim caliphate on the planet are peace-makers and preachers. “Umma Defence” introduces anti-Islam parties as aggressors trying to destroy a caliphate based on religious foundations.  By deepening ‘positive idea’ in the mind of the users, the video unveils the stage of polarization. According to this stage, an anonymous ideologist communicates with the user(s)  to examine their qualifications and potentials to transform the violence in the virtual world to reality.

Some users would feel elated that they are having a dialogue with a Jihadist(s), whom powerful intelligence agencies failed repeatedly to arrest.

‘Communication and Planning” is regarded as the most dangerous stages video games are developing to launch terrorist attacks ‘safely’. According to a report by techtimes.com, terrorists who took part in the horrific attack in Paris on Nov. 13 may have used the Sony PlayStation 4 to recruit for and plan the attacks. The report suggests that ISIS may be using the PlayStation 4 system as a way to communicate. The Belgian interior minister confessed to the difficulty of keeping close watch on and monitor users of gaming console and communications going on there. The Belgian minister said regretfully that PlayStation console was ideal ‘for those wanting to plan atrocities’.

The Belgian foreign minister in November in 2015 confessed that online chat rooms provided the maximum level of safety, which frustrated efforts by Belgian intelligence agency and its foreign counterparts to trace the terrorists.  It is apparent that the huge numbers of users are behind the enormous challenge facing international intelligence agencies in this regard.

It must be said that the Jihadist would have the opportunity to convey his violent message to the user(s) without having any need to communicate. This happens when the two sides embrace identical ideology and they underwent training on how to use gaming console cryptically.

Video games would also help Jihadists develop new ideas for tactics of attack. This is achieved when the users find it more interesting to exert more mental efforts to handle higher levels and more sophisticated stages to win the prime prize. It is known that entertainment companies are cooperating with security veterans to create virtual worlds, which have striking similarities with the real life.

World’s governments are constantly trying to upgrade their monitoring and surveillance strategies to have access to the identity of notorious user(s) of video games to abort their bids to intensify and expand their violent activities. It remains unclear whether it is legitimate to protect the national security by implementing regulations enhancing online hunt for Jihadists and extremists. This is because makers of the virtual worlds remain reluctant to disclose the names and the identities of users, otherwise intelligence agencies would abuse the data. Providers of video games would be violating the terms of privacy if they offered intelligence agencies access to the data and information in this respect.

Facebook has fallen foul of users and investors for its handling of personal data following revelations in the UK that political research firm Cambridge Analytica wrongly gained access to personal data of more than 50 million people.

Nonetheless, ignoring the makers of the virtual worlds, intelligence agencies have developed electronic options to spy on the users. Documents leaked by CIA’s former agent Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed that the US’s National Security Agency, in collaboration with CIA, have had access to games like “World of Warcraft” and “Second Life” to infiltrate virtual terrorist meet-ups. Snowden’s documents also revealed that the CIA had created for its agents a special voice system, which obstructs their bids to spy on each other.

Defending the privacy of its users, the spokesman of Blizzard Entertainment, the maker of “Water Craft” said that they had no idea whether the US intelligence agencies were spying on their subscribers. The spokesperson’s denial should indicate that makers of gaming consoles are constantly keen to develop privacy-protecting programmes.

The raging dispute over tight control of the virtual worlds will definitely subside when makers of the virtual worlds willingly grant security agencies access to suspects there. In the meantime, the security agencies should reciprocate by providing substantiated information about suspects of terrorist groups. This positive cooperation will save the security authorities much effort and cost to be spent on launching their own rigs to monitor and track down suspects in the virtual worlds.

It must be said that a mutual confidence-building will help the creators of the virtual worlds to overcome worries that their powerful partners, the intelligence agencies, would abuse their joint cooperation by embedding a spy unit to have an easy and unobstructed access to the data of the gamers. Security veterans are warning that the absence of credibility will have a negative impact on negotiations underway between the two sides to resist terrorism.