Terrorists use social media to spread propaganda, conspiracy theories: Jaishankar at UN meet in Delhi

Addressing the UN meet in Delhi, Jaishankar said, "These have turned into potent instruments in the tool kit of terrorists and militant groups for spreading propaganda, radical ideology and conspiracy theories aimed at destablising socities."

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said that an encrypted messaging service to blockchain and virtual currencies offer a very promising future for a wide area of economics but has a flip side when terrorism is concerned.

Jaishankar also said that internet and social media platforms have turned into potent instruments in the tool kit of terrorists.

Addressing the UN meet in Delhi, Jaishankar said, "These have turned into potent instruments in the tool kit of terrorists and militant groups for spreading propaganda, radical ideology and conspiracy theories aimed at destablising socities."

He also pointed out that in recent years terrorist groups in liberal societies and lone-wolf attackers have significantly relied on technologies.

"These technologies have thrown up new challenges due to their potential vulnerabilty for misuse by non-state actors given the nature of some of these technologies and nascent regulatory environment," Jaishankar said.

"Being a relatively low cost option with increasing ease of accessibility, misuse of unmanned aerial systems for nefarious activities by terrorist groups such as weapons delivery and targeted attacks have become an imminent danger," he added.

The minister also said the ethos of open societies is being used to attack freedom, tolerance and progress.

"In recent years, terrorist groups, their ideological fellow travellers, particularly in open and liberal societies, and 'lone wolf' attackers have significantly enhanced their capabilities by gaining access to these technologies," Jaishankar said.