The Internet has become a useful tool in everyday life that it can also be compared to a human brain that gives out important information and functions in many ways.

Therefore, it is not a wonder that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) uses this tool and the same is also used by the Arizona State University (ASU) to battle against the extremist group that contributes to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq these past years.

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According to Extreme Tech, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media function as the firing of those neurons, as in a brain. Hence, the flow of information is increasing and dampening according to the amount of individuals who use, access, and share it to others.

When a certain number of users share a particular thought, meme, or image on the Internet, which tends to go viral, meaning that its circulation grows exponentially in such a way that a cascading firing of neurons causes a certain thought to rise up and turn it from abstract to something tangible.

For example, a suicide case that happened will be followed by certain news about its rate in the said area or another, which increases the circulation of the release as this puts an effect to the readers, engaging such behavior. So in line with this, ASU's CyberSocio Intelligent Systems Laboratory or CySIS has the mission to stall the spread of extremist ideologies in the cyberspace.

Today, ISIS is the most prominent of worldwide spread of such ideologies that engage other users of the Internet across all ages.

ASU's School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering Dr. Hasan Davulcu explained that they are developing better tools so that they can detect the networks that the extremists use for promoting violence and hence block their online content.

The theory of informational cascades means that a person observes the actions of others, particularly the ISIS', and then he or she engages the same acts, despite possible contradictions in his or her own private information signals, i.e., a British 15-year-old girl traveled miles away from home to join the terrorist organization.

ISIS has become adept to recruiting new members through online, according to Crunch Network. The individuals who enlisted themselves because they were alienated have somehow sense of belonging in the extremist group, which is evidence that ISIS members are truly efficient.

To prevent this, ASU researches have online war against ISIS by using a program that can thwart the spread of online terrorism.

TagsISIS, Arizona State University, online recruitment, software algorithm