Pandemic helped extremists to radicalise vulnerable young people

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist has said that the coronavirus pandemic helped extremists to radicalise vulnerable young people, with 19 children under the age of 18 arrested for terrorism offences last year.

Twist said the coronavirus pandemic and its resulting lockdown had left young people more isolated and spending more time online, where they could be targeted by extremists, at the same time as fuelling conspiracy theories and widening divisions in society.

He said that online radicalisers, particularly on the far right, were ‘using memes and conspiracy theories as a way of hooking in young and vulnerable people on social media platforms’, before ‘luring them to closed chatrooms and other encrypted channels’ to ‘expose them to more extreme narratives and illegal material’.

The Deputy Assistant Commissioner warned that the ‘increasing prevalence of young people in the right wing terrorism space is a particular concern’ as he urged the public to remain vigilant. Police and MI5 have continued to foil a succession of plots with 29 plots foiled since March 2017. Most have been Islamist, which accounted for 18 of the would-be attacks, but the fastest-rising problem has been far-right terrorism, which has been behind a further nine of the foiled plots.

Twist said: “We are concerned that Covid-19 is creating an environment in the UK in which extremists will find it easier to identify, target and potentially radicalise vulnerable people. It has done so by exacerbating the challenging circumstances and grievances within society that terrorists latch onto to promote their brand of hatred and extremism – such as economic inequality or pre-existing divisions within communities.

“It has stoked distrust in authority and inspired a new wave of conspiracy theories which have more easily reached the mainstream – such as against 5G technology – and made us all more isolated, making it more difficult for young and vulnerable people to access to the support services such as mental health provision and social care to protect them from extremist influence.”