http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 216 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 8 / 2016 against them, which is without a doubt the most despicable of all forms of violence, but also to be found amongst governments themselves who are precisely those who are supposed to guarantee their protection. Alongside this asymmetry, one of the other characteristics that marks current con-flicts is their gradual demilitarisation. War has broadened its reach and already surpasses the activities of armies, progressively including new actors who fight with or without uniform, and who use communication and new technologies for their cause. Military personnel are taking second place to civilian professionals who are experts in this field, just as new means of warfare are displacing the conventional ones. The internet provides a new space and strategists speak of War 2.019, which shifts the battlefield to the web. It is not for nothing that the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIL)20 possesses more than 46,000 Twitter accounts in order to exchange information and to attract new followers21 thanks to the expert use of what we call social networks, through which they spread their ideology by means of the most up-to-date propaganda techniques. It is in this way that they have been able to accrue more than 25,000 sympathisers in approximately 100 countries, who are targeted in twenty languages by means of 90,000 tweets per day.22 With a view to counteracting this avalanche, the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee is currently working to devise a strategy that will help combat the jihadi narrative of te-rrorism, which it should present in April 2017. There is also an abundance of initiatives taken by governments to win over public opinion and citizens’engagement such as the application designed by the Ministry of the Interior in Spain so that individuals are able to report suspicious cases using their mobile phones.23 Yet these digital tools have not only become the new methods of propaganda and combat, since they are also incredibly useful to assist with information, communica-tion and humanitarian intervention activities. That is to say, new technologies work at both extremes, because they both change the formats of conflicts and diversify threats and also reinforce human rights by extending the exercise of the right to freedom of expression to places and people who otherwise would not be able to enjoy this right. International justice24 has already referred to the important contribution that the in- 19 RID T., and HECKER M., War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age, London, Praeger Security International, 2009. 20 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to the name used by the UN Security Council in Resolution S/RES/2170 (2014) http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/2170%20(2014). 21 El País, 24 July 2015. http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2015/07/24/actualidad/1437753480_585841.html. 22 Special meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Committee on «Preventing Terrorists from Exploiting the In-ternet and Social Media to Recruit Terrorists and Incite Terrorist Acts, while Respecting Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms». New York, 17 December 2015 http://www.un.org/en/sc/ctc/docs/2015/Concept%20 note_ICT_SpecialMeeting_2015.pdf S/2016/416 http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/2016/4 16&referer=http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53909&Lang=E. 23 https://stop-radicalismos.ses.mir.es/. 24 IIACHR Sentence. Case of Herrera Ulloa v. Costa Rica, 2 July 2004, para. 109. http://www.corteidh.or.cr/ docs/casos/articulos/seriec_107_ing.pdf.
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