Al-Shabaab and Social Media: A Double-Edged Sword

Abstract

Al-Shabaab, one of the most powerful armed militant groups in Africa today, has earned a reputation for savvy use of new communication technology to recruit, fund-raise, and advance a radical Islamist narrative. This paper reviews the group videos, web-site material, and Twitter messaging to assess the effectiveness of the group use of social media. Among its findings are the observations that the group has gravitated to waging a war of narratives via internet and Twitter as its fortunes have waned on the ground; that communication technology has amplified the group messaging but has also exposed its deep internal divisions; and that its use of Twitter is useful is reinforcing and reshaping a grievance narrative that was already in place in the Somali public.