Sunday, October 27, 2013

Are mass murderers using Twitter as a tool?

An injured shopper being helped out of Nairobi's Westgate
Mall during the attack last month

It was the first major terrorist attack in history in which the group that mounted the operation used Twitter to announce to the world it was responsible.
The group then quickly tweeted what its rationale was for the attack and also gave operational details of the assault -- all in real time.
Last month a group of armed gunmen stormed the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, shooting at shoppers and mall staff with automatic weapons, killing at least 61 civilians.

Several hours into the assault a Twitter account used by the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab tweeted: "The Mujahideen ('holy warriors') entered Westgate mall today at around noon and they are still inside the mall, fighting the Kenyan kuffar ('infidels') inside their own turf."
It was the first confirmation that the attack was the work of Al-Shabaab, and journalists around the world quickly reported this.
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