Monitoring social media is easier said than done

The three British girls who packed their bags and took a flight to Turkey have apparently crossed the border into Syria. Their intention seems to be to join the Islamic State and it looks like they may have succeeded. It emerged over the weekend that there had been contact between one of the girls and Aqsa Mahmood, a Scottish woman who travelled to Syria herself. Initially communicating through Twitter, it appears Mahmood played a role in their journey to Turkey and now into the heart of the conflict in Syria. Criticism turned on the security services: according to Aamer Anwar, the lawyer for the family of Aqsa Mahmood, they are not even doing the ‘basics’ to prevent this kind of migration. The ‘basics’ seem to include social media monitoring. In an interview with the BBC, Anwar described his ‘incredulity’ that messages seemingly forewarning the girls’ actions weren’t acted upon. This mirrors the report produced by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament following the inquest into the murder of Lee Rigby.