Monitoring Social Media For Spreading Forbidden Ideology, BNPT Finds 2,670 Radicalism Content Throughout 2023

Illustration of netizens accessing social media. (Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) conducts cyber patrols to monitor social media used to spread terrorism ideology.

Head of the Legal, Public Relations and Information Technology Section of BNPT RI Colonel Sus Tjandra Sulistiyono said, in today's era of development, propagators of terrorism tend to use social media to spread their ideology.

"BNPT continues to monitor the network that is below the surface and cyber patrols in this case," said Tjandra when contacted in Jakarta, Tuesday, May 14, as reported by Antara.

These various efforts, he said, were carried out in collaboration with related ministries/agencies (K/L) in countering terrorism.

According to Tjandra, the movement of terrorism networks is like an iceberg, which is that the above looks calm or frozen, but the movement of the network beneath the surface never stops.

Meanwhile, he continued, one type of network movement under the surface in question is the spread of terrorism through social media, which is widely used by young people today.

Throughout 2023, BNPT RI found as many as 2,670 digital content containing radicalism and terrorism or IRET or Intolerance, Radicalism, Extremism, Terrorism.

Of the 2,670 digital content of radicalism and terrorism found, 1,922 content has been proposed to be removed or taken down. Most of the IRET-laden digital content is found on social media Facebook and Instagram.

It is noted that the potential for exposure to radicalism and terrorism is also higher in women, the younger generation, especially the Z-gene, and those who are active on the internet.

BNPT assesses that the three parties are vulnerable to terrorism ideology because the propaganda strategy for terrorism radicalism has changed, from the beginning using a hard approach or direct hard approach, now a soft approach or soft approach on various online media platforms.

However, over the past year, there were zero cases of terror attacks with violence by terrorism networks in Indonesia.