Social media is killing the websites where terrorists and terrorist wannabes talk shop. That is, when wars aren't killing them.

That's the claim made by jihadi ideologue Abu Sa'd al-'Amili in a recent essay circulating online. Translated and summarized by Cole Bunzel at Jihadica, al-'Amili regrets that more people allegedly interested in fighting the Crusader enemy aren't congregating on the password-protected web forums that used to provide an incubator for jihadist ideas. If once it was argued that websites like the al-Shmukh forum had displaced the need for physical terrorist training camps, al-'Amili believes that Twitter and Facebook have displaced the web forums.

U.S. counterterrorists have long attempted to infiltrate the forums, both to learn about emerging trends in jihadi circles and to hunt the participants. Mysteriously, those forums have also been the target of major hacks. Al-'Amili concedes that "our enemies" have driven people away from the forums.

But the advance of technology is the major culprit in his critique. "Major writers and analysts" are now spending more time on Facebook and Twitter than on the forums. (So much so, in fact, that U.S. Central Command has set up social-media sting operations.) Suddenly, the "protected strongholds" are bleeding talent to more distributed outputs of jihadist intent – ones that do a poorer job concealing shop talk. Pretty quickly, the forums are down to people who think the U.S., Israel and Iran have teamed up to attack Syria.

Like many who don't like seeing their favorite tech tools displaced, al-'Amili begs his readers to make the web forums the "main theater of your jihad" and have more confidence in the security provided by "your technician brothers." Judging from Bunzel's summary, he doesn't offer much to address the reasons why jihadis and wannabes prefer social media.

There's another reason why the forums lack for members aren't participating as much, and it has little to do with the advent of social media. They're off fighting. "These 'departers' are not to be considered a loss to the forums, though their departure does result in decreased activity," as Bunzel summarizes. Dead men do not post.

Maybe al-'Amili's wrong, or perhaps he's actually just trolling. Jihadis may be eschatological conspiracy theorists, but they surely share the human trait for nostalgia. On the other hand, the Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and YouTube channels of extremists may be more important indicators of where the residual jihadist movement is going.