Islamic State Weaponising Social Media for Radicalisation: Exploding Threat in the Indo-Pacific

by Rahul Mishra, Harshit Prajapati and Prisie L. Patnayak •  Gatestone Institute  •  April 3, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Purveyors of radical content, to reach a wider audience, have overtaken the non-confrontational format through memes, commentary video reels and influencer content. Extremist propaganda is being repackaged in local languages. Algorithms on these social media platforms serve as amplifiers for radical content.
• Although concealed as individual efforts, they were systematically planned and organised.

• Encrypted messaging platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp, TamTam, Threema and Hoop are being used by extremists to communicate and plan activities.
• According to media reports, 54% of terrorism-related arrests in Malaysia involve support for Islamic State via online platforms.
• Terrorist organisations such as Jamaat-e-Islami have deeply penetrated Bangladeshi society — aided and abetted by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.
• In Afghanistan, Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K, or ISKP) and Al-Qaeda resurfaced when the Taliban regime took over the country after the United States fled. The entire region is plagued by the online propaganda of terrorist organisations.
• In the region, to address the threat of cross-border terror finance and radicalisation on private social media platforms, countries urgently need to develop region-wide legal and cybersecurity frameworks.
• At the global level, like-minded countries need deeper cooperation with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and stronger collaborative efforts that cut across government agencies, non-governmental organisations, tech companies and civil society organisations.

Cyber-enabled terrorism has become a critical national security issue for countries in the Indo-Pacific region, especially in India’s Jammu and Kashmir, the wider Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, where end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms and online recruitment have connected a substantial percentage of Muslim youths to Islamist terror networks.

Purveyors of radical content, to reach a wider audience, have overtaken the non-confrontational format through memes, commentary video reels and influencer content. Extremist propaganda is being repackaged in local languages. Algorithms on these social media platforms serve as amplifiers for radical content. This has led to so-called “self-radicalisation,” in turn giving birth to “lone wolf ” attackers who carry out political violence without direct support or instruction from an established terrorist network.

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