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Terrorism 2.0
On a recent jetBlue flight from Boston to Seattle I watched the MSNBC special, Richard Engel’s War Zone Diary. The reality-slapping documentary describes Engel’s arrival in Baghdad as a freelance journalist, the first attacks of the war and the eventual abandonment of the capital by other journalists. It was a stunning account of an inside-Baghdad perspective at the beginning of the war and the physical and emotional effect it had on Engel.
While viewing the segment, I had an epiphany that Web 2.0 capabilities have forever altered the way terrorists/insurgents communicate with the rest of the world. Traditionally, when a terrorist/insurgent group wanted to get their message out, they would blind-fold a Western reporter and bring them to an undisclosed location to conduct an interview. The resulting news story was often limited by what was considered acceptable content by the media outlet. In his documentary, Engel spoke of how insurgents abruptly decided the Western press were all infidels – people who didn’t accept the Islamic faith. As a result, insurgents decided to control their own news stories. Suddenly using a video to capture the beheading of a kidnapped person or preaching unedited content to a video camera and posting it on the internet became as common as issuing a press release.
The heart and soul of Web 2.0 is using the web as a platform and relying on user-generated content. So much good has resulted from Web 2.0. Whether it is empowering a person with real-world health experiences or keeping people connected through social media or making the world laugh at a video on the evolution of dance, Web 2.0 has had a tremendously positive impact on hundreds of millions of lives around the world. I find it ironic and noteworthy that somehow this amazing platform has been adopted by terrorists/insurgents to communicate evil.
What other negative applications of Web 2.0 have you seen?
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Hi Kel,
Interesting thoughts about the current evolution of the Web.
On a more benign note, a significant downside of the web is the misinterpretation of data found on the web.
Social media platforms like MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, Yahoo 360, provide platforms for any one to generate content whether it be accurate or not. User generated content has given everyone a pen and a rapid means to publish their own brand of wisdom. While this is a wonderful way to be heard, it is difficult if not impossible to distinguish truth from lies.
Many web surfers take web content for accurate and true. It’s just like the old saying, “If it’s in print it must be true.” The difficulty and cost of getting things in print during the pre-Web era helped to screen out erroneous data even though fiction still found its way to print.
Today getting things published is instantaneous and ubiquitous. Post your own brand of facts on the web and it can be viewed worldwide immediately
Employers often check the web for additional information on potential new hires. Most employers assume everything they find on the web is true. There lies the problem. Just because data can be found does not mean it is accurate. For example, how will my employer know that their new Chief Strategy Officer named Michael Neece is not the same Michael Neece who was recently looking for a female pen pal while he was serving time in prison?
The good news with the Web is everyone can have a voice.
The bad news is everyone has a voice.
March 4th, 2008 at 7:43 am
michael, i agree with your perspective. web 2.0’s “power to the people” essence certainly is a double-edged sword. on an upnote, i think the good far outweighs the bad. i can’t think of anything in the physical world that doesn’t have the potential to be flipped and used in a negative way. from the nutbags who use a cars as a getaway to a robbery to the sickos who put razorblades in halloween candy, the world has a very dark side. the good news is the vast majority of the world and the vast majority of web 2.0 applications are positive. now if web 3.0 could figure out how to eradicate evil off the face of the earth, that would be something.