The Newshour Debate: Social media breeding terror?

11th December, a UK based Channel 4 exposes that that one of the top ISIS accounts was operated by an executive based in Bengaluru sending shock waves throughout India, waking up the intelligence agencies from their slumber. With 17000 followers and constant updates on ISIS' actions, this man raising big concerns for intelligence agencies. Over 24 hours later, Bengaluru Police manages to track down Mehdi Masroor Biswass arresting him on Saturday morning. The big fear -- did Mehdi Masroor Biswass tweet help in recruiting locals for ISIS. After all, this was a second instance after ISIS recruit Arif Majeeds return, highlighting Indias vulnerability to the ISIS threat. Examples are many. ISIS and other terror organisations successfully use social media platform to spread their terror propaganda and even hire recruits. Videos are uploaded on the internet regularly to lure the youth. Their reach unimaginable and today's attack shows no country is safe from this new age terror. Such is the reach and impact of social media that even fake accounts sometimes get attention spreading more panic.

In a debate moderated by TIMES NOW's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, panelists -- Dr Sambit Patra, National Spokesperson, BJP; Sunil Alagh, Chairman, S K A Advisors; Sanjay Jha, Spokesperson, Congress; Sanjay Hegde, Senior Advocate, SC; Sudha Ramalingam, Advocate & Vice-Pres, PUCL and Subimal Bhattacharjee, Cyber Space Analyst -- discuss whether, should a crackdown on terror include those who support terrorist ideologies on social media?