ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how terrorism has been defined and interpreted throughout history, as well as the development of social media. It describes the different forms of terrorism that are found in the current modern political environment. Terrorism is highly subjective and politically charged. An understanding of the sources of terrorism is therefore important in order to consider what behaviours underlie terrorist acts. Extremism, which is often seen as the precursor to terrorism, is an overarching belief system that is used by terrorists to justify their violent behaviour. There has been a backlash from the social media community highlighting the role of the many stakeholders who participate in the social media cattle-pen of ideas. The oft cited aphorism that ‘one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter’ in the era of social media could easily be adapted to state that someone’s ‘freedom fighter’ is also likely to be someone’s ‘Facebook friend’.
