The use of social media has become the new battleground in terrorism. How does it contribute to the radicalization of people, and what can we do to confront this issue?

One of the biggest issues with social media in regards to radicalization, is homegrown terrorism. While individuals are not always radicalized due to social media, the ease of accessing this propaganda through the internet demonstrates to be a continuing problem in the future of homeland security. An example of an attack that helped start the focus of homegrown terrorism, was the 2005 bombings in London. This attack killed 54 individuals and was initiated by Muslim extremists born in Great Britain (Chance, 2005 as cited in Mueck n.d.).

One method which was used in the past to help confront the problem of homegrown terrorism, was the USA Patriot Act. This act—which was put into place shortly after the 9/11 attack—proved to provide the tools necessary to combat this type of issue. Along with this act, came issues of controversy, such as individuals feeling their right to privacy was being taken away (Usa Patriot Act, 2002). This Act is one that will confront this issue considerably. If government agencies have the ability to see extremely questionable searches, it could help catch problems before it is too late. Privacy is still important, but the issue of something such as homegrown terrorism outweighs the issue of privacy.