{"id":20424,"date":"2015-05-15T10:00:19","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T00:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=20424"},"modified":"2015-05-15T10:39:15","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T00:39:15","slug":"budget-2015-countering-online-extremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/budget-2015-countering-online-extremism\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2015: countering online extremism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ISIL<\/a><\/p>\n

ISIL is having considerable success in employing public social media platforms for recruitment and propaganda. In Australian cases like Jake Bilardi\u00a0<\/a>and Mehmet\u00a0Biber,\u00a0<\/a>we’ve seen the social media component playing a role in the radicalisation and recruitment process.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also seeing a lot of engagement by Australian foreign fighters and Islamist extremists online in terms of posting their own content: such as Facebook posts, YouTube clips, Tweets and photos.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been some success in disrupting a small amount of the extremist propaganda on YouTube and Facebook. Twitter is trying<\/a> (through user reports) to crack down on this engagement.<\/p>\n

It was therefore pleasing to note that our Attorney-General\u2019s department recently met<\/a> with these companies to discuss cooperation to restrict extremist material.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s really a case of \u2018whack-a-mole\u2019 when it comes to trying to stop extremist online propaganda; we\u2019re not going to censor our way out of the problem.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s good news that this week\u2019s federal budget provided $22m to combat terrorist propaganda and counter violent extremism.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s stated objective<\/a> is \u2018to challenge terrorist organisations’\u2019 lies and propaganda online. This will make it harder for terrorist groups to attract vulnerable Australians, particularly young Australians, through the internet and social media.\u2019<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet clear who\u2019s going to produce the high volumes of online counter propaganda on social media that\u2019s required to make a difference here. But there\u2019ll be a need for some government risk taking, with community groups and others having to produce the necessary counter messages at a fast rate. In this context, American counterterrorism expert Peter Bergen recently\u00a0noted<\/a> that satire can be a powerful weapon to deflate ISIL\u2019s claims to be the vanguard of the new caliphate.<\/p>\n

I agree with the findings of Roslyn Richardson in an ASPI study on this problem. After she spoke with young Muslims in Sydney about Australia\u2019s online efforts in countering violent extremism she concluded<\/a> that it\u2019s best to support local initiatives with small grants:<\/p>\n

\u2018Where possible, government agencies should support existing popular community-driven anti\u2011violence online campaigns rather than prioritising the development of new websites to counter violent narratives\u2026. Government agencies should directly engage with the young people involved in popular initiatives and investigate ways to support them and their campaigns where possible.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Roslyn did, however, caution that with government support there\u2019s a real risk that this may undermine the credibility of the message. She reported that many of the young Muslims she spoke with \u2018simply weren\u2019t interested in visiting government websites on a regular basis\u2019.<\/p>\n

They appeared to be especially reluctant to visit websites countering violent extremists when they\u2019re government-badged. Richardson found that these sites \u2018hold little appeal among young Muslim audiences and should be aimed at other target groups instead, including community leaders\u2019.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not so sure about this last point: just because it\u2019s an Australian government \u2018messenger\u2019 doesn\u2019t automatically mean the message will be discounted. It would, I suspect, more often than not depend on whether the message itself resonates with the target audience.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no doubt that governments\u2014both federal and state\u2014will need to work harder at shaping the messages they deliver to ensure they\u2019re credible.<\/p>\n

Even if the messages are credible, however, it\u2019s still going to take time to see what might or mightn\u2019t work in countering online extremism in Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISIL is having considerable success in employing public social media platforms for recruitment and propaganda. In Australian cases like Jake Bilardi\u00a0and Mehmet\u00a0Biber,\u00a0we’ve seen the social media component playing a role in the radicalisation and recruitment …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":20425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[578,1266,273,275,993,224],"class_list":["post-20424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-attorney-general","tag-budget-2015","tag-counterterrorism","tag-foreign-fighters","tag-isil","tag-social-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBudget 2015: countering online extremism | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/budget-2015-countering-online-extremism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Budget 2015: countering online extremism | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ISIL is having considerable success in employing public social media platforms for recruitment and propaganda. 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