As reported on Wired, a programme known as Viral Peace aims to engage with those they deem as extremists or potential extremists on various websites and message boards. They intend to use "logic, humour, satire, [and] religious arguments, not just to confront [extremists], but to undermine and demoralise them."
The US government is concerned with the growing trend of groups using the internet for recruiting purposes. Much like Harakat Al-Shabab Al Mujahideen, the Somali arm of Al-Qaeda, which recently began using twitter. The @HSMPress handle has over 13,000 followers.
owever, Viral Peace is still in its early stages, and is yet to "yield a strategy."
A
potential path the programme is exploring is to get locals in countries
with significant Muslim populations to troll message boards on their
behalf. Locals, the State Department believes, will have greater
credibility on such websites, and therefore be more effective at
enacting Viral Peace's strategy.
As part of
this agenda, Viral Peace organised brainstorming meetings in Singapore,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Pakistan, with about 30 people
in each country to promote ideals such as peace and tolerance. The
video and photos below are from the meeting in Indonesia, called
"Generation Change," which was hosted by the US Embassy in Jakarta. (http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/viral-peace-0022291 )
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