More young people being radicalised online, says UK counter-terror officer | UK security and counter-terrorism

11 comments

1. A senior counter-terrorism officer has warned that children and young people are increasingly being radicalised online after spending long periods on the internet during the pandemic.
   Det Supt Andy Meeks said a growing number of vulnerable people were accessing extreme material after spending hours unsupervised online.
   He said: “We have seen a significant increase in online investigations or investigations of individuals who’ve been committing acts of terrorism online.

   “A lot, I think, coincided with the pandemic, when we saw a lot of people who spend extended periods online in isolation, and I think that has definitely led to an increase in this type of activity. It’s certainly an increased focus of our work in counter-terrorism policing.”
   Meeks, the head of investigations for Counter Terrorism Policing North West, was speaking after a 20-year-old student was jailed for 13 years for preparing acts of terrorism by compiling and sharing a bomb-making manual.

   Jacob Graham, a self-styled leftwing anarchist, had said he wanted to kill at least 50 politicians. He told his trial he was “quite anti-government”, adding: “I didn’t agree with the idea of it – the way certain things were handled, the pandemic, the cost of living.”
   Graham had buried a knife and bomb-making chemicals in a woodland in Formby, near Liverpool. On the wall in his bedroom he had a printout of a car bomb exploding with the words: “Make politicians afraid to start their cars again.”

   Meeks said Graham, who was 19 when he was arrested in May, had made a terror plan over “several months” from his bedroom at the home he shared with his mother in Liverpool.
   He said the student had a grudge against his college because he had failed a computer science exam and that he was “fairly socially isolated” and did not appear to have any wider interests.

2. As society becomes increasingly bleak people will turn to ideas and groups/people that are approachable, friendly, offer a sense of family, belonging, a seemingly better future

   All are tools used to manipulate the vulnerable.

   It’s not just the pandemic. It’s caused by the world which the tory party is creating.

   It’s what happens when you go out of your way to fuck up people’s lives.

3. A lot of the actions of late by supposed peaceful protesters kinda proves it

4. Wonder which one they are talking about?

   Islamic extremism: 50%

   Far left extremism: 49%

   Far right extremism: 1%

5. Facts. This is due to TikTok pushing cancel culture and everyone being in echo chambers.

6. As long as the status quo prioritises billionaire yachts over the living standards of regular people this will only occur more frequently.

7. Online channels make it easier for fringe groups to reach a wider audience. Whether it be through blunt language and propaganda or gradual radicalisation.

   But come on, if a mixture of economic circumstances and government policy meant that long term issues such as housing, inequalities, wages, matters of social justice, and climate change were being meaningfully tackled, radicalisation would be happening a lot less. That is not happening, and even more than that, political leaders have come out and said that young people should not be getting any support whatsoever, while actively supporting other age groups.

   And people are wondering why younger generations are tired of this obvious BS?

8. ‘Radical’ means ‘of, or pertaining to, the root’. In a political context, it can only sensibly mean ‘getting down to brass tacks’, or the equivalent of ‘fundamentalism’ in religiosity.

   Perhaps it is only to be expected that, with unfettered access to more-or-less the sum of humanity’s culture, past and present, in the Internet, the likelihood of one maintaining a superficial politics would diminish.

   For instance, one could readily learn of the Chartists, unquestionably a terrorist organisation, and moreover one whose aims were achieved; aims which now would likely be referred to as ‘fundamentals of British democracy’ by the people wringing their hands about ‘radicalism’ today.

9. Not hard. You get to see whats really happening online and realise you arent alone in the way you feel. The more people speak up, the more people are talking in the real world

10. This thread shows an awful lot of the left wing equivalent of blaming immigration for Anders Breivik.

    I think those who identify social isolation, the pandemic and the internet are more correct.

11. You can see it in real-time on this sub. The flood of pro-palestinian comments post October has been really worrying.