International cooperation in recruiting “lone wolves” on social media

Abstract EN

Because of the tremendous development in the field of social media use and its wide spread among broad segments and groups of societies, especially the young youth groups, many extremist groups have used these sites to recruit terrorists and push them to carry out terrorist operations inside their countries, in a new and escalating phenomenon known as the phenomenon of lone wolves.

hence, this paper aims to identify and define ways of international cooperation in a specific aspect of cybersecurity, which is combating the recruitment of lone wolves through social media.

through the use of the qualitative analytical method, this study concluded that the phenomenon of recruiting lone wolves is a transnational phenomenon that cannot be contained and undermined without creating agreed upon international rules of action that guarantee combating the spread of this phenomenon through social networking platforms, as international organizations are still limited with regards to developing a set of rules, regulations and agreements related to combating the recruitment of lone wolves.

the study also found that the capabilities of many countries in combating the recruitment of lone wolves are still relatively weak due to the weakness of their expertise and technological cyber capabilities in their security services, which are usually costly, complex and intertwined.

the study recommended the importance of establishing an “electronic army”, and not only technical units, in the country that is equipped with the latest technologies and equipment, and that is capable of following up and monitoring spam and the recruitment of terrorists.

it also recommended the need for establishing an international agreement specialized in the field of combating the recruitment of individual wolves whose goal is to unify the legal framework and legislations for monitoring this recruitment process, follow-up and control of conscription messages in addition to collecting legal evidence and presenting terrorists to trial, enhancing security cooperation between countries, and building their capabilities in the field of combating cyber terrorism.