Osama Bin Laden fan Clubs Build Online Communities
Posted on March 13, 2006
USA TODAY — Mar 8 — Al-Qaeda sympathizers are using Orkut to rally support for Osama bin Laden, share videos and Web links promoting terrorism and recruit non-Arabic-speaking Westerners. The largest bin Laden community has more than 2,000 members. Google, which operates Orkut, tries to keep intervention to a minimum. Orkut, with 13 million members, is particularly popular overseas, notably in Iran and Brazil. Iranian traffic was curtailed in January when the government banned Orkut and several popular blogging tools that carried anti-government content, Reporters Without Borders noted. More than half of Orkut’s users claim, upon registration, to be ages 18-25, and more than 75% say they are under 35. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY
