ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the UK government's revised Prevent strategy of 2011 and its conceptualisation of the internet. It begins by outlining the predominant terrorist uses of the internet with a view to showing how heavily integrated the functions of terrorist groups have become with cyberspace. The chapter argues that the government and Prevent have simultaneously undervalued the internet's role in radicalisation and enacted an online strategy that compounds the construction of suspect communities through a discourse of vulnerable people that disproportionately focuses on young British Muslims. Using the internet to spread propaganda is one of the most common functions exploited by terrorists online. The internet has also created an attractive new means for terrorist organisations to raise funds. Financing terrorism online has taken many forms, from simply providing the means for donation anonymously and securely right through to cyber-crime. Use of the internet for terrorists is to provide training for those who are willing to commit terrorist acts.
