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Unfortunately, we have seen terrorist groups use social media to spread hateful propaganda, to recruit members, and to incite violence with alarming effectiveness.

As a communication medium, social media is a critical tool for terror groups to exploit.

Social media has allowed groups, such as ISIL, to use the Internet to spot and assess potential recruits. With the widespread horizontal distribution of social media, terrorists can identify vulnerable individuals of all ages in the United States - spot, assess, recruit, and radicalize - either to travel or to conduct a homeland attack.

Social media companies must work closely with the U.S. government to ensure their platforms are not being used by terrorist organizations to do harm to our country.

Law enforcement has seen an unprecedented use of social media by ISIL. They're just kind of flooding the airwaves.

We're dealing with an enemy now, ISIS, that has a very sophisticated social media program.

ISIL's widespread reach through the Internet and social media is most concerning, as the group has proven dangerously competent at employing such tools for its nefarious strategy. ISIL uses high-quality, traditional media platforms as well as widespread social media campaigns to propagate its extremist ideology.

Social media is simply a tool that facilitates actions.

Social media is something of a double-edged sword. At its best, social media offers unprecedented opportunities for marginalized people to speak and bring much needed attention to the issues they face. At its worst, social media also offers 'everyone' an unprecedented opportunity to share in collective outrage without reflection.

Like all technology, social media is neutral but is best put to work in the service of building a better world.