On Wednesday, December 2nd, Syed Farook and his wife?Tashfeen Malik opened fire at a work related Christmas party in San Bernardino, California. Fourteen innocent people were killed; dozens more were wounded, a town is scarred, and a nation is crying out, “Oh no. Not again.”
Facebook executives discovered Tashfeen Malik, one of the shooters, posted a macabre message the very morning of the deadly attack. It was posted under an alias account which has since been removed. It turns out Malik posted her dedication and allegiance to terrorist group ISIS, or Islamic State of the Levant. Some terrorist experts say Malik’s posting may have revealed she and her husband were deeply influenced by ISIS, and not officially a part of this terrorist group. But a federal law enforcement official confirmed Malik pledged allegiance to the group under a false name, then deleted ?the message right before the shootings began. Law enforcement officers aren’t allowed to go into detail because of anonymity; they couldn’t talk about it anymore because of the investigation. But this Facebook posting gives a clear motive for why her and her husband shot up the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino (Farook attended the party as an employee).
But ISIS and other terrorist groups have used social media as a recruiting tool for years. That’s how they’ve been able to recruit thousands from the United States and other Western nations. They even show You Tube videos of themselves serving ice cream to children in impoverished neighborhoods in Syria and Iraq. They use social media to reach out to people who have very little going for them or who are in a very venerable position. Then these terrorists tell them whatever they want to hear. They use a combination of demonic charm/charisma and social media to continue their deadly and destructive work. It’s not social media that’s bad. It’s the person behind the keyboard you need to watch, and when will it ever end?
We at Computer Geeks would like to extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of those who perished in the senseless tragic recent shootings in San Bernardino, California.