Jihadist groups including Boko Haram are increasing in numbers and strength in northeastern Nigeria, and using social media to publicise their campaigns and find new recruits.
Jihadists in Nigeria and their supporters are increasingly turning to social media platform TikTok, posting videos of themselves posing with rifles, grenades and stacks of cash, according to reports by French news agency AFP.
AFP reviewed videos on the social network, easily accessible to everyone, they said.
At least 100 people were killed in the new wave of jihadist attacks in April, as the governor of Borno, the epicentre of the violence which has raged since 2009, said the state is losing ground to armed groups.
The news agency has identified several accounts on the Chinese-owned platform on which men and women, some of them very young, display weapons and wads of cash.
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Some of them broadcast live, preaching anti-Western ideologies in a style reminiscent of the videos released by deceased Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in the early days of the 15-year-old insurgency.
Criminal gangs that carry out raids on villages and kidnappings for ransom in the northwest of the country have used TikTok in the past, as Nigerians have testified.
"It started with bandits," Bulama Bukarti, a security analyst at the Texas-based Bridgeway Foundation wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "Now, Boko Haram members are hosting live TikTok shows – spreading propaganda, justifying their violence and threatening anyone who dares speak against them."
A Boko Haram fighter even threatened Bukarti himself in a now-deleted TikTok video for speaking against the group, he said.
'It's paying off'
Among the 19 accounts reviewed by AFP were men dressed as clerics, their faces revealed to the camera even as they called for violence against the government and teamed up with accounts that showed off weapons hauls.
Accounts also post old footage of the original Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf, and those of Isah Garo Assalafy, who was banned from preaching in public places in Niger state for using violent rhetoric against democracy and Western civilisation.
These accounts frequently go live, interacting with followers, answering questions and receiving digital gifts that can be converted into cash.
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Nigeria's jihadist conflict, which over the years has expanded to include a rival Islamic State group, has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced some 2 million people in Africa's most populous country.
Saddiku Muhammad, a former jihadist who has since defected, told AFP that armed groups are turning to TikTok in part because security forces cracked down on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
They also know TikTok is popular with young people.
"Jihadists realised that to capture the minds of young people, they need to speak to them in the language they understand, instead of the traditional didactic and demagogic styles that are boring and unattractive to them," Muhammad said.
"From all indications, it is paying off. They are reaching out to young potential recruits."
'They aren't afraid'
Analysts say the use of TikTok by members of armed groups is a direct challenge to the government.
For Malik Samuel, an Abuja-based security analyst at the pan-African think tank Good Governance Africa, it is a common Boko Haram tactic to use the group's young members to spread propaganda.
"I believe showing their faces is strategic, to show that they aren't afraid and to let their target know that they are engaging with real people," Samuel said.
Bukarti had already raised concerns about the increasing presence of the Boko Haram terrorist group on major social media platforms, particularly TikTok, in a 2022 report.
Last month Bugatti – who is also a senior fellow at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change – highlighted on Nigerian television that group members are actively using TikTok to propagate their ideology through video clips and live streaming in the Hausa language.
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Counter-action
Many of the jihadist accounts on the video-sharing app have been flagged and taken down, but the capability of broadcasting live streams on the platform adds another layer of difficulty to monitoring the content they put out.
A TikTok spokesperson said it was difficult to quantify the number of accounts linked to terrorist organisations that have been taken down.
"Terrorist groups and content related to these groups have no place on TikTok, and we take an uncompromising stance against enabling violent extremism on or off our platform," a spokesperson for the company told AFP in an emailed statement.
TikTok says it is partnering with the United Nations-backed Tech Against Terrorism to improve the detection and removal of violent extremist content.
"Our community guidelines clearly state that we do not allow the presence of violent and hateful organisations or individuals on our platform," the company states. "We will always take action on content found to violate these policies."
(with AFP)
