The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said the United States should not underestimate the power of ISIS on social media.
{mosads}“I think [their message] is ‘kill, kill, kill,’” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“It’s a force that we really haven’t seen before, and we have to begin to cope more seriously with it, and that includes social media.”
Feinstein said a trend is emerging in which ISIS leaders encourage sympathizers around the world to carry out attacks for which the group takes credit.
“It is putting that lone wolf [attacker] in a position that they have never been in before: ‘You do it, we’ll take credit for it,’” she said.
She also encouraged law enforcement to ask for more funding from President Obama and Congress if they need it to combat the group’s powerful recruitment campaign online.
“This is a matter of prime defense of the homeland, and it would come first,” she said.
Meanwhile, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, said authorities have a “hugely difficult” challenge in monitoring ISIS on social media.
“Today, it is probably the single thing they are watching more than anything else,” he said.
“What we should be doing is enabling moderate Muslims around the world to counter this message.”