A very good article from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College, London, on how people are radicalised. Worth reading in full, this section is particularly pertinent.
Quote:
However, our research suggests that the decisive factor in moving people from being extremists in terms of their thoughts and beliefs to becoming terrorists is not online propaganda but offline social networks.
It now seems likely that at least one of the attackers had been part of the extremist network al-Muhajiroun - based around the notorious British extremist Anjem Choudary, who was convicted of inviting others to support IS in 2016.
Choudary also had a YouTube channel, but practically all of his followers were known to him personally and were recruited face to face.
What he offered was a sense of community, belonging, and camaraderie within a circle of peers.
This builds strong interpersonal bonds based on what has been called "in-group love".
The internet plays an important role in terms of disseminating information and building the brand of organisations such as IS, but it is rarely sufficient in replacing the potency and charm of a real-world recruiter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40161333