Misuse of Social Media for Online Extremism and Radicalization and how to Counter it
Internet which once was considered a privilege to some has now become easily accessible to everyone. We are living in a world that completely depends on the internet. Whether we want to book a cab, order food, make an assignment, or even when we are bored, we are continuously scrolling through our mobile phones using the internet. Instead of using it as leverage, we have made it a basic necessity, something we can’t even think about living without. No doubt the Internet provides us with a lot of advantages, it has made our life easy but, unfortunately, it has been benefiting the violent extremists and terrorists as well.
Internet is available to everyone, just being a tap away has made life easy for terrorists as well. Earlier these violent extremists used to recruit people through newspapers, cults, radio, etc. But now with the modernization of time and technology, these extremists and violent groups have modernized as well. They have been using the internet to recruit people and in fulfilling their objectives.
They have been using social media websites and platforms to reach out to people, especially the youth of the country to manipulate and exploit these innocent beings into joining their violent groups. According to a report by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), during the years 2014 and 2015, there was an increase of almost 70% in recruitment in violent terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda and ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant). And all these recruitments were done through the internet.
Terrorists usually target young minds, as they are more passionate about things and also because they have a thrill for adventure. However, these are not the only reasons, as the internet is available to almost 59% of the world’s population. Thus, increasing the probability of getting exploited and manipulated by evil minds. The main objective of this paper is to understand the role of social media in spreading violent extremism and radicalization. Moreover, to suggest ways to counter this problem.
Recruitment of people through the internet is not a recent problem, it has been happening for half a decade now. It is not only limited to one country; it is a global thing. People are being recruited from around the world. The Internet has connected many of us through social media. Now being connected to a person hundreds of miles away is not a difficult thing. People form friendships and connections from around the world through social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. However, being connected to people and forming friendships around the world sounds super fun and refreshing but unfortunately, it is not as simple as that. We can never be sure of people’s intentions when we meet in person, therefore, how can we trust a person whom we meet online, in a virtual world full of catfish?
With the ongoing hype about raising awareness about mental health and depression. Many developers have created spaces over the internet and chat rooms where people talk to random strangers from around the world and can share what they feel and be a little less lonely. These chat rooms and spaces are used by people who are usually introverted, insecure and bullying, etc. Such interactions with strangers can be heartwarming, comfortable, and wholesome but they are severely dangerous as well. Sharing your problems and weakness with strangers can be harmful to many as these well-wishers and friends can use these weaknesses against these people and manipulate them into doing something wrong.
A notable example is Naureen Laghari, she was an all-rounder student from Pakistan, and she was good in her studies and extra-curricular activities. According to an article by Dawn news, she was transformed from having a normal adult mindset into having a radical one, passionate to help the Islamic State (IS), a militant group, killing innocent beings, and leaving her home country to travel miles away and get trained to help IS succeed in their mission. According to some reports she was connected through social media with a guy, who manipulated her into doing all this. This is how dangerous a social media interaction with a random stranger is. One can never be sure the person they are talking to on the other side of a chat window is their well-wisher or not.
Just like Naureen Leghari, there are various other examples of different individuals who have become a victim of such interactions and life-changing experiences from around the world. There can be various reasons for getting close to an internet buddy, it can be because of loneliness, little interaction with the one’s around in the real world, strict households, and identity crisis. We cannot pinpoint a single reason for it because there are millions of them.
Extremism is to hold strong views about a particular ideology, these views are being indoctrinated into the minds of people through the internet. People usually with little information about the topic are easily manipulated into accepting these views. Terrorists first approach their victims with a helping hand, they lean them in, make them believe that they are a part of something big, they are born to achieve a bigger goal in life and these people start to feel special about their existence and become more passionate about such ill intentions and hence, are manipulated into becoming a member to their organization and into conducting such heinous crimes.
Many extremist groups also use social media platforms to spread wrong information about the blasphemy acts being conducted throughout the world. The motive behind spreading this wrong information is to create hype over the internet and to spread hatred among different countries and religions. Any news being shared on social media platforms spreads like a wildfire over the internet and people start holding protests and other extreme activities because of it. This also becomes useful for terrorists in approaching and misguiding people through wrong information and achieving their motives. Sometimes they do this to divert attention from their original plan or propaganda.
Spreading wrong Information and hate is not only limited to non-state actors, instead, some countries also use the Internet and social media platforms to misguide people and spark extremism. A recent example is an Indian government that last year in 2021, used Twitter as a platform to spread the wrong information about a civil war breaking out within Pakistan. In March there was a controversial situation that took place between a political party and the state government. However, the situation was brilliantly handled by the state actors, but India decided to take advantage. Where they uploaded videos of Pakistan Police joining hands with a political party “Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan”. The video portrayed an image of police officers shaking hands with Maulvi’s (members of TLP) and showing unity with them and disharmony with the state’s government. Although after investigation it was proved that these videos were old and were used falsely by the Indian government to portray the unity of security forces with the other side and create mistrust among the local people and government. They even used the hashtags #civilwar in Pakistan. These hashtags trended over Twitter for almost two days. Fortunately, the situation didn’t worsen as hoped by the Indian government. But this example helps in understanding how even different international actors use Internet platforms to spread extremism.
Due to the freedom of speech, people are also misusing social media platforms to spread hate among different religions, ethnicities, and cultures. They use religious practices and terms and then relate them to different terrorist and extremist groups. Thus, spreading hate and fear among people of different countries. Which later results in the adaptation of certain policies that are unjustified and biased. For instance, after 9/11 a woman wearing a hijab was called and viewed as a terrorist. She didn’t have her own identity; she was judged for wearing a hijab and sometimes she even became a victim of being attacked because of it. All these hate crimes are influenced by something we read or see over the internet. We can never be sure whether whatever we are reading over the internet is true or not. But our actions and reactions are usually influenced by these things, this is how extremism works.
With this growing threat, and little information about terrorists active on how many applications, and social media platforms. It has become a difficult task to counter this threat. Monitoring the internet activities of 59% population of the world is not an easy task. Nor can it be done by the parents of the teenagers. Online recruitment and online indoctrination of extremism are not just limited to teenagers it stretches to adults as well. Therefore, to counter this threat such a framework should be designed that would help in dealing with this threat effectively and reasonably.
As discussed earlier there are various reasons behind the easy manipulation and radicalization of innocent people. These reasons are mostly psychological and personal. Therefore, in order to deal with such a threat, there is a need to promote peace education within our curriculums. Peace Education is a field of study that teaches children a skill set that helps them in their personal as well as social life. Peace education is more than a curriculum study it promotes emotions such as love and empathy towards other individuals, class fellows, and society.
Peace education teaches interpersonal skills, like anger management, emotional awareness, communication feelings, etc. It teaches skills that help children in opening up about their problems and refrain from taking violent measures. It generates critical thinking. This skill would help children and adults critically think about these extremist ideologies and raise questions, despite of just accepting it and going about it. With good communication skills, children and adults would be able to talk about this with their parents, and friends and in circles, they interact. It would help people in distinguishing between right and wrong.
This education is necessary as it will generate empathy development. This is also really important as during the radicalization process people will be reluctant towards killing innocent people because they would feel empathetic towards others’ life as well.
A significant example of peace education in de-radicalization can be observed through the case study of Sabawoon Rehabilitation center. A center that was established by Pakistan’s military’s collaboration with the “Hum Pakistani Foundation”. This rehabilitation center was run under the supervision of Psychologists, who designed a framework to de-radicalize the youth of “Swat Valley”. These psychologists used the techniques of Peace Education to bring radicalized teenagers back into their normal lifestyles. These teenagers were trained, exposed to deadly weapons, and indoctrinated by the “Tehreek-e-Taliban”. Bringing such teenagers back to their normal violent free mindset was a great challenge for these psychologists and then to further re-integrate them back into society was an even greater one. But fortunately, through the techniques of Peace education, these teenagers were brought back to their old normal life. This project has seen a massive success rate, many children that were re-integrated back into society did not retract to the violent ways.
This was possible because these children were taught to unlearn the violent behaviors that were taught to them by the Taliban. They were taught to dismantle the war culture. They were taught empathy all these techniques help in refraining from violent ways. The credibility of peace education can be observed through this remarkable example, not only did peace education help in de-radicalizing them instead it stopped them from going back to this life.
Adding peace education to curriculums can be a pre-emptive step to fight through such a threat. If children are taught human rights, empathy, the culture of non-violence, environmental education, respecting each other religions and cultures, justice, and inner peace, it will broaden their horizons. They won’t be limited to a conservative mindset, they won’t consider themself to be superior to other religions and ethnicities instead they would respect them. Thus, reducing the threat of indoctrination through critical thinking. This is a very small step that could make a major difference.
Teaching Peace education would teach children to deal with these problems beforehand and would also help them once they become adults, it is a lifetime skill. It is not only limited to a short period but for a lifetime. Most extremist and terrorist groups of the contemporary world are violent groups that relate their attachments and beliefs with the religion Islam such as Al-Qaeda, Islamic State of Syria and Levant, Daish, and Boko Haram. These groups justify their heinous crimes under the umbrella of the religion Islam. They use religion to manipulate and recruit young minds as well.
The second most important step that needs to be taken into consideration is the right and complete education in Islam or any other religion. Extremist views can easily be indoctrinated when one has little information about their religion and beliefs. For instance, the religion Islam greatly talks about the word Jihad, this word holds great importance to Muslims because of the history and religious values attached to it. But the definition, in today’s world, has completely been modified by the different terrorist groups. They are using this term to radicalize the Muslims, due to little information about the term many teenagers are easily manipulated into thinking it is the right path to follow and devote their life to.
Most Curriculums usually lack content regarding political, cultural, and civic values. Most textbooks promote hate speeches, they include content about the marginalization of Islamiyah which creates a vacuum in the minds of children. They are not being provided with complete knowledge thus having little information about the important issues of the modern world. To successfully counter these extremist and terrorist threats, there is a need to draw an elaborating image of Islam for children. to teach them about the important terms that terrorists manipulate to radicalize children and adults. In primary and secondary levels of education, children need to be taught the correct and complete definitions of important terms, for instance, the word, “Jihad”, “martyrdom”, “The life after death”, “Jannat and Akirah”, correct meanings and concepts should be taught to children to help them have a better understanding about the right and wrong.
Children should be firm and independent in their beliefs; they should be aware when someone misguides them about their religion and its values. With the help of peace education, we can provide authentic and complete knowledge about Islam by teaching it in compliance with the modern world. We need to teach children that we live in a dynamic world and we need to change with it. Adapting to the modern world doesn’t mean we are not following our religion instead we are trying to implement it in the contemporary world. Islam is a complete religion; it doesn’t limit us from growing and flourishing in the world instead it helps us to become better.
There are certain gaps we need to fill to formulate a system that would help us protect our children and country from terrorists. There is an urgent need to include peace education in the curriculums of primary and secondary school levels and also its techniques in our daily lives so that we can adapt such measures that will help us in our personal and social lives. It will protect us against such threats imposed by online extremism and terrorism.
Therefore, in schools, the right and complete education need to be delivered to children so that they can have a better understanding of it. Moreover, there is a need to teach Islam in modern times. Having little knowledge about such controversial topics leaves people with no other choice but to accept what they are being told.
Another important step is to promote solidarity and trust among the state and its people. In the case of Naureen Leghari, she went to Syria for training after being radicalized online and when she returned to Pakistan, she was supposed to conduct an attack within her home country. Solidarity and trust between the state and people are necessary because we need the country’s individuals to stand with it, not against it. Although Peace education helps in understanding and forming such loyalty still it is the responsibility of the country’s government to make its people aware of the necessary steps, they take in forming relations with other countries to strengthen their bond and leave no space for non-state actors to create misunderstanding.
Armoring our children with peace education skills will help them in protecting their self from these evil minds. This would also help in dealing with this threat more effectively, thus reducing the possibility of joining these terrorist organizations. Moreover, we need to understand that not everything that the internet tells us is authentic, therefore, we need to gather sufficient data before making an opinion about something.
Furthermore, religion is a sensitive topic so we should try to refrain from commenting and spreading hate about one’s religion and consider our race or religion to be superior to the other. We need to respect one another’s opinions and religions, this can be learned and understood through peace education. Therefore, there is a dire need to implement such education into the curriculums so that we can deal with such a situation firsthand and can avoid getting manipulated easily.
To cover this threat in a broader space government should try to arrange seminars in workplaces and universities as well. This would help in targeting a bigger audience. This is a threat that cannot solely be countered by a state’s government, the people of the state need to step up as well to deal with this threat.
