Why the Internet Is Not Increasing Terrorism

Conventional wisdom suggests that transnational terrorism is empowered by the development of information technologies. It has been argued for long that the Internet may increase capability of mobilization and reduce organizational cost for terrorist movements. But this article demonstrates both theoretically and empirically that the Internet is not facilitating terrorism to the extent that people once thought. The global Internet expansion is not accompanied by an increase in completed transnational terrorist attacks. Policy implications of this finding is also discussed.