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Terrorism in Indonesia funded via social media

This article is more than 12 months old

Terror financing in Indonesia has shifted from illegal activities, such as robbery, several years ago to legal activities, such as donations.

And donations are coming from members and supporters of terror cells through social media.

This new trend in financing, which has made it more difficult for the authorities to detect, started around 2015, based on a recently completed white paper mapping the risk of domestic terror financing activities.

The paper was jointly prepared by the anti-money laundering agency, Indonesia's intelligence unit, and Indonesian national counter-terrorism agency (BNPT).

Since 2015, the authorities have rated financing via donation by members of terror cells, social media and self-funding as high-risk.

This means there is a high chance of occurrence, and security officers should give it the utmost attention, said the white paper.

"The reach of social media is so vast that the potential of the terror cells to raise funds is huge," it says.

BNPT Chief Inspector General Suhardi Alius in his speech at the recent launch of the white paper, which was released yesterday, said: "Terror activities need financing to procure weapons, to mobilise, to send people and to hold exercises.

"We have to cut the supply of funds." - THE STRAITS TIMES

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