ISIS has been a lot more Internet savvy than other terrorist groups, so this could be a good idea. Google just announced they’re going to let nonprofits and anti-terror websites target their ads specifically to people looking for information on how to become terrorists.
A bunch of websites have been reporting that you’ll actually get fake search results if you Google a phrase like, “how to join ISIS.” But that’s not true.
The search results will still be the same, since most people searching for information about ISIS are just doing research. But you’ll ALSO see ads explaining why you shouldn’t join. They haven’t started rolling it out yet, so it’s still in the works.
It’s also not clear which words or phrases they’d target, probably because it’s hard to tell who’s researching terrorism and who actually wants to be a TERRORIST, based just on what they Google.
And obviously this won’t completely prevent people from using Google to connect with terror groups. But the hope is it might stop SOME people from being radicalized.
