Why the U.S. government is 'trolling' jihadists on social media
(CNN) -- "We don't negotiate with terrorists," has long been the standard refrain of governments when it comes to violent extremists.
But these days, in the realm of social media, at least, they are talking to them.
In recent years, the U.S. State Department has launched social media efforts to engage jihadists and their sympathizers online, contesting their claims with the intention of dissuading potential converts to Islamic extremism.
"We are actually giving al Qaeda the benefit of the doubt because we are answering their arguments," says Alberto Fernandez, coordinator of the State Department's Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC), which runs the program. "The way I see it is we are participating in the marketplace of ideas."
That marketplace is now online, and the corners of it dedicated to Islamic extremist talk can be surreal, noisy, sometimes horrifying places.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/18/world/jihadist-twitter-state-department-trolls-terrorists/index.html
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