Online chatter on South-east Asian militants fighting in Syria and Iraq can readily be found on extremist websites and the social media accounts of the militants, supporters and sympathisers.

The Malaysian Police reported a handful of Malay language sites. The International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) have detected at least 70 sites in Bahasa Indonesia.

The social media accounts of militants were first detected during the first quarter of last year. A handful were from Indonesia and at least 35 from Malaysia. Their numbers may be small yet they have served as virtual powerhouses for garnering support online.

… Nur Azlin Yasin is an Associate Research Fellow and Jasminder Singh a Senior Analyst with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Omer Ali Saifudeen and Teo Hwee Kuan are analysts with the National Security Coordination Secretariat. The four authors are members of the Online Radicalisation Research Community of Practice that comprises Singaporean practitioners and subject matter experts involved in research related to online radicalisation. This commentary first appeared in RSIS Commentaries.