It was a productive day of counterterrorism strategizing on Capitol Hill.
Several members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs met at a hearing entitled “Jihad 2.0: Social Media in the Next Evolution of Terrorist Recruitment” Thursday in order to brainstorm about ways to stop the Islamic State’s successful recruitment of terrorists using social media.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis), who chairs the committee, suggested that Hollywood might just be the answer.
“Let’s face it,” he explained. “We invented the Internet. We invented the social network sites. We’ve got Hollywood. We’ve got the capabilities … to blow these guys out of the water from the standpoint of communications. So, we need to work on that.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) proposed the U.S. government make better use of memes — “fancy memes” — on social media in order to combat ISIS and spread counter-messaging.
“There are easy tactics,” Booker explained. “I know them from politics, of how to get more voice and virality to messaging that we’re not using as a government to get counter-messages out there.”
“I know something about memes,” he continued, pointing to some of the social media posts from jihadists. “To get memes to go more viral. Look at their fancy memes compared to what we’re not doing.”
Watch a portion of the hearing below.
H/T The Intercept
