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Within the sessions of media and terrorism conference,

Discussion on the role of social media in confronting terrorism and extremism.

The sessions of the Second International Conference titled "Media and Terrorism: means and strategies", which was hosted by King Khalid University (KKU), during the period from 7 to 9 of this month, had many studies and research that focused on the role of social media in confronting terrorism and extremism.

Dr. Ben Essa Aslon, from the Higher Institute of Media and Communication in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco, presented a study entitled "propaganda of extremism and terrorism across social networks platforms." Dr.Aslon said that the social networks, in some ways, supported terrorist works, and helped in the spreading of their works. Dr. Aslon explained that ease of use to social networks represented a fertile condition that the organizations and terrorist groups could use to infiltrate and to globalize their bloody crimes. This could happen through marketing their ideologies. According to scholars, attracting and recruitment operations rely on social networks, and is according to a well-planned methodology that is based on emotional impact techniques, by provoking emotion using the name of religion, and the argument of defending the sacred values. Terrorist groups also depend on the style of titillation for the young people who use social networks and who are frustrated and desperate.

For his part, Dr. Hassan Omar Basfer, from King Abdul-Aziz University, presented a study on the impact of the means of the new digital media in the dissemination and formation of University students' culture to fight terrorism. This study aimed to identify the perception of Saudi students at King Abdul-Aziz University towards the effect of the role of the means of the new digital media (YouTube, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook) in the dissemination and formation of university students' communicative, awareness, and media culture, to fight terrorism.