It's amazing how quickly social media broadcasting has become central to social violence. It is being used by all of the participants:
Attackers (video was removed): Larossi Abballa Facebook livestreamed his terrorist attack on the home of a police chief in France.
Some items to think about:
The lone wolf terrorist does not exist.
The lone wolf terrorist is a fiction. He doesn't exist.
The reason is simple.
People don't engage in terrorism as individuals. They do it as part of a social group. They need the social meaning a group provides to justify the personal risk and the act of violence.
Bots will transform warfare, from guerrilla warfare to conventional state conflict.
Before I get to how bots will enable the automation of terrorism (a truly transformational development), let me spend a bit of time on how it will transform nation-state militaries.
Enemies innovate, particularly open source networks like ISIS.
That's a given. It's what you do in response to that innovation that matters.
Three months ago, I wrote up a worst case scenario for how the US could end up in a civil war this fall. Unfortunately, nothing has changed. The conditions that make the scenario possible are still valid.
The ISIS Caliphate is using online fealty as a way to recruit jihadis around the world. It's a powerful recasting of an ancient concept that goes well beyond modern expressions of loyalty.
The way ISIS has constructed its brand of online fealty makes it globally scalable. The only barriers to entry are: conduct an attack and publicly pledge fealty. The most common platforms for a public pledge? Social media, 911, etc.
During his deadly attack on a packed Orlando nightclub where he killed 50 people and wounded many more, Omar Mateen called 911.
On the recorded call, he pledge his loyalty to ISIS.
A day later, a terrorist outside of Paris, used Facebook livestreaming to pledge his loyalty to ISIS while stabbing a police chief and his wife to death.
What's going on?
The GOP convention is scheduled for 18-21 of July in Cleveland. What's the chance of protests dominating the convention? 100% Here's a good example of why:
The Federal government gave Cleveland a $50 m security grant to prepare for the convention. With this money, the city plans to field 4-5,000 officers drawn from around the state. Here's what it they plan to equip them with:
The Panama papers revealed only one of the vast networks used by criminals, corrupt politicians and tax evaders to hide wealth from scrutiny. There are many, many more.
My friend, Tom Barnett, at his new digs on resilient.com explains why this leak is important: