Hezbollah and its Al-Manar media outlet continue activity on US social media websites and even use a Miami-based Internet Service Provider despite legislation meant to stop it, Steven Stalinsky, the executive director of MEMRI

Since the recent tragic terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, reforming the visa screening process has become a high priority in Washington, DC, where both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the State Department have indicated they are considering tighter scrutiny of applicants' social media activities.

Egyptian authorities have invited foreign software companies to help the government track online speech amid a sweeping crackdown on dissent. A twin bombing Monday killed two police officers. Egypt is tightening its control over social media by acquiring new software that would facilitate extensive monitoring of dissidents' communications, putting even stay-at-home opposition supporters at risk.

Isis has proved fluent in YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, internet memes and other social media. Its posting activity has ramped up during a recent offensive, reaching an all-time high of almost 40,000 tweets in one day as they marched into the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

How ISIS is taking war to social media-and social media is fighting back When the militants of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) descended on the Iraqi city of Mosul in June 2014, they didn't just march into town-they simultaneously launched a Twitter hashtag campaign, #AllEyesonISIS.

Muslims around the world have taken to social media to condemn the terrorist attacks in Paris and fight against Islamophobia. Reviving the #NotInMyName hashtag campaign, many Muslims are sending the message that ISIS, the group claiming responsibility for the attacks that killed over 120 people, does not represent Islam.

Today, countries across the world are being terrorised and ravaged by extremism; both territory and minds conquered by a militant and ideological crusade. Right or wrong, the mere mention of the word "terrorism" conjures up images of bearded Muslim men - kalashnikovs in hand - intent on eradicating any thought, person or object which runs contrary to their narrow fundamentalist ideology.

A 26-year-old Briton on an EgyptAir plane Tuesday did what Millennials do all the time: He took a selfie. This wasn't just any selfie, however. The photo included the man authorities say hijacked Ben Innes' plane. Innes was one of the remaining hostages during a six-hour standoff at Cyprus' Larnaca airport, the Guardian reported.

No one knows how Giulio Regeni was murdered, or by whom. But from the moment the body of the 28-year-old Italian graduate student was found on the side of the road in a Cairo suburb, suspicion has fallen on Egypt's security services. The Middle East Studies Association has now issued a security alert for study and research in Egypt.

I spent part of last week in Qatar with a brilliant group of scholars, discussing digital media in the Middle East. The article discusses primary work in Egypt focused on the ways children grew up constructing identities in which they could be at once Egyptian and Arab and at the same time modern and global

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Last week, privately owned newspaper Al-Watan reported that the " Revolutionary Punishment " movement posted a warning on its website urging Egyptian judges to forgo their involvement in cases against Brotherhood members or leaders to save themselves and their families. The bill would give judges, for the first time, "the power to deliver deterring sentences for internet crimes such as cyberterrorism.

One of the ways terrorism is flourishing is through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in an online world where 196 countries are connected to the Internet. It should not be surprising that terrorists use ICT, because firstly it is difficult to track and trace cyber communications, and secondly there is a lack of a globally accepted legal framework that would improve information security.

EgyptAir Flight MS181 was taken over by a passenger claiming to be wearing a suicide explosive belt. A hijacking that diverted a domestic Egyptian flight to Cyprus has ended with all hostages released and the hijacker surrendering.

Could social media help build another uprising soon? Supporters of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi often claim that Egyptian internet activists are powerless and disconnected from reality. They say that activists are living in their own virtual bubble; however, recent incidents suggest otherwise. When the 'Arab Spring' began in 2011, the role social media played was undeniable.

For the first time in history, a social movement could be observed in real-time as it spread, coalesced around ideas, and grew exponentially in size and scale across the Internet. That is what News Group International - a Dubai based news management company - discovered in its recent comprehensive analysis of social media surrounding the uprising in Egypt.

There's no doubt that the citizenry relied greatly on social media to network and organize during the Arab Spring, when areas in the Middle East and North Africa erupted in popular revolt during the early part of 2011. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter were used to call and coordinate protests, and also for sharing information on issues around the pro-democracy movement.

There's been some backlash in the last few days against the idea that either Tunisia or Egypt were brought on by Twitter or a "Facebook Revolution." And certainly, it takes a lot more than the 21st century version of a communication system to persuade people to take to the streets and risk harm, imprisonment, or death.

While true that "slacktavism," online bullying, and unprecedented threats to our privacy are challenges, few could argue that social media has not vastly facilitated political involvement. The results have been impressive, if not always as dramatic as the Arab Spring.

Of course, Libya is currently the largest political issue, alongside Japan's natural disaster and nuclear situation. In both situations we also have an unusually prominent amount of information being made available through social media websites. It really is pretty remarkable.