Staying Alive: The Indonesian Pro-IS Community’s Online Resilience and the ‘Lone Actor’ Threat in 2025

Cover Image, Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses Volume 17, Issue 3 April 2025.

In an article in Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses, Jordan Newton writes about how Indonesian Islamic State (IS) supporters’ small but stubbornly resilient online presence is evolving and underpinning new terrorist plots.

The internet and social media are playing an increasingly important role in Indonesian extremist networks. In December 2024, the National Counter Terrorism Agency (BNPT)’s annual Outlook document noted that around half of all terrorists arrested between 2013 and 2022 had at least been partly radicalised by activities and materials on the internet. The report also highlighted that terrorists continue to push out hundreds of thousands of pieces of social media content every year, which risks drawing more budding extremists into the fold.

Recent arrests of Indonesian Islamic State (IS) supporters have also highlighted that the internet is not just a part of extremist networks, but, in some cases, has also become central to the formation of cells and plotting of attacks. In 2024, police counter terrorism unit Special Detachment 88 (D88) arrested three young IS supporters who had been radicalized almost exclusively online. The authorities also rounded up several other extremists accused of posting online incitement to conduct attacks ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to Indonesia in September of the same year.

This spate of internet-driven plots and incitement is underpinned by a complex and resilient pro-IS community online. IS supporters, despite being pushed into ‘survival mode’ by arrests offline and takedowns online in recent years, are proving difficult to eradicate. They are back on mainstream platforms and embedding themselves in online conversations on local, national and global grievances, increasing the likelihood they will draw in handfuls of new recruits. Though a resurgence of plotting on the scale of IS’ peak in the mid-2010s still seems unlikely, the pro-IS community online will likely seed more self-radicalized 'lone actors' in the years to come.