A report by the Gatestone Institute, a think tank based in New York, stated that several terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State (ISIS), have exploited social media's low-cost, fast, and globally connected platforms for ideological propaganda, recruitment, mobilization, and carrying out terror attacks.
The report indicated that these platforms are used to propagate extremist ideology, aiming for mass radicalization by employing "emotional and psychological manipulation" to influence children as young as 12.
The report further stated that cyber-enabled terrorism has become a critical national security issue for countries in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly in India's Jammu and Kashmir, the wider Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia, where end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms and online recruitment have connected a significant percentage of young people to terror networks.
According to the report, in the Indo-Pacific, ISIS, its sympathizers, and other fringe groups are leading such campaigns.
It highlighted that this pattern was evident in both the December 14, 2025 attack on Bondi Beach in Australia, and the November 10, 2025 attack on the Red Fort in New Delhi, where social media platforms were "systematically weaponized" to radicalize individuals in carrying out terrorist attacks.