Assorted Materials: Johnny Ryan

One of the benefits of having published Countering militant Islamist radicalisation on the Internet: a user driven strategy to recover the web with the Institute of International & European Affairs is that I am free to make the book freely available. It has attracted interest from unforeseen quarters. I recently discovered that it was on a training course for FBI agents. I think it’s now time to make it freely available in its entirety on Google Books - see the entire text at http://books.google.com/books?id=hsUGK-PpEuUC&printsec=frontcover

I spoke on the issue of Internet governance at the Swiss Government’s counter terrorism seminar on 29 April 2008. Here is the presentation. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m putting together a document at work that will define the scope of our Digital Future group. The question is, what issues should be included and why if the group is to examine digital competitiveness in Ireland in the coming years?

In 1999 the Government’s Action Plan to Implement the Information Society noted that: “we are at the early stages of a new industrial revolution - one which will have more dramatic implications than any other single industrial development in the history of the State”. Today, the information and communication technology sector accounts for about one third of Irish exports and directly employs 93,000 people in more than 4,000 enterprises. Larger still is the digital sector, which could be far more broadly defined to include sub-sectors of the financial services, medical research, foreign development initiatives etc.

An important contributor to Ireland’s future competitiveness will be the government’s capacity to produce foreword looking policy that enables it to adapt to, and leverage the benefits of, the digital revolution that is currently underway. This means foreseeing not only the benefits of digital convergence and user-driven innovation, but also the vulnerabilities inherent in an increasing dependence on vulnerable - but indispensable - communications technologies. This is particularly true if Ireland is to remain attractive to the forward looking, innovative companies that can enhance our competitive edge and maintain Ireland’s E-ready, knowledge-rich economy in the decades to come. Read the rest of this entry »

There was little detail in the speech by the UK Home Secretary yesterday, but one possibility is that the CleanFeed system of hybrid URL filtering might be applied to attempt censorship of radical material on the Internet.

I was interviewed for the BBC World News Service and BBC Radio’s Simon Mayo programme. One thought which occurred is that the Home Secretary’s use of language about “grooming” suggests a belief that violent militant radicalisation is a top down process, similar to an adult grooming a child for criminal purposes. I think this is perhaps misleading. Radicalisation on the internet seems to be bottom up and horizontal, a process in which like minded individuals consult the Internet for information that will support their assumptions, and lend foundations to their political perspective. Fighting violent radicalisation as “grooming” would prioritise the identification of “groomers”, which could divert effort from the true priority: tacking the narrative that some young people in Europe are using to groom themselves as militants. Read the rest of this entry »

“…experts have expressed serious doubts about what can be effective to prevent radicalisation over the Internet, saying little research has been carried out.

Johnny Ryan, Senior Researcher at Dublin’s Institute of International and European Affairs, has told Reuters that users could easily circumvent any restrictions imposed by the authorities.

Web sites could relocate from one country to another unless there was international agreement, while the controversial content was often distributed through services that are hard to block, such as legitimate chat rooms, he said….” Read the rest of this entry »

The European Commission’s impact assessment on Vice President Frattini’s Internet censorship proposals was made public on 6 November 2007.

My book was cited (10 citations of 112 total) in the report, which happily concluded that censorship was not a practical response to violent radicalisation on the Internet. This is a major event in the debate over whether to attempt to regulate online content.

See the European Commission DG FSJ impact assessment {COM_SEC(2007)1424}, 6 November 2007 [at this link]

I spoke recently at the OSCE’s restricted experts meeting on means to counter radicalisation to terrorism on the Internet. See coverage by Reuters here.

This is a draft transcript of my speech

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Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,

Read the rest of this entry »

Reuters reported on some of our presentations at the OSCE annual experts meeting on violent radicalisation on the Internet. Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Holden’s piece for which he interviewed me is at Reuters
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL2658640020071106

the same day that I was interviewed on the same topic by FM4 Radio (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) http://www.iiea.com/audio/jryaninternet.mp3 Read the rest of this entry »

I was interviewed about this on RTE’s Prime Time TV programme, 5 July 2007. Adrian Lydon’s report, and my contribution to it, are available here. See also my letter to The Times (London), published on 6 July 2007.

Read the rest of this entry »

Countering Militant Islamist Radicalisation on the Internet: a User Driven Strategy to Recover the Web 160pp, ISBN: 1-874-109-86-9, hardback.

Buy it now!

By Johnny Ryan, Senior Researcher. Foreword by Alan Dukes, Director General of the IEA, and former Minister for Justice and for Finance. Order from Amazon.

Praise

“This book is a valuable aid to reflection among all those concerned to protect our lives and democratic liberties against the evils of international terrorism”

-Alan Dukes, Director General of the Institute of European Affairs and former Irish Minister for Justice.

“Ryan, a former Cambridge University researcher - who worked alongside Prof Christopher Andrew, president of Corpus Christi College and chair of the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar - reveals in this work the elaborate, web-based virtual communications networks employed by groups such as al-Qaeda to connect with, radicalise and recruit young Europeans to their terror cells. … Ryan offers a comprehensive policy-based solution to the issue of militant Islamist rhetoric on the internet. … This book demystifies the “intellectual-unknown” of the internet and its use by groups such as al-Qaeda. … The book represents the unique and positive contribution that Irish defence scholars can make at EU and international level”

- The Irish Times. [read full review]

“This book is food for thought. … We really do have a problem in society, and this is chapter and verse what this book is about.”

- Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, UK Shadow Security Secretary, speaking at the launch of the book on 9 July 2007.

Summary

Violent radicalisation on the Internet is at the nexus of two key trends: the democratisation of communications driven by user generated content on the Internet; and the democratisation of strategic violence driven by mass-casualty non-state terrorism. How best can Europe capitalise on the first trend to counter the second?

This book examines this question using primary materials drawn from web forum conversations, al Qaeda documents, texts of leading Islamist thinkers, opinion polls, policy documents and interviews with technology and security specialists.

As this book argues, the answer to violent radicalisation on the Internet lies not in censorship of the Internet, but in the “user driven” Internet revolution.