Extremism & Terrorism

Question 1

What is the difference between extremism and terrorism?

Answer 1

• Extremism is linked to thought –> political, social, or religious beliefs and ideas.
• Terrorism is linked to action –> aim of creating a climate of serious fear among the general population

Question 2

What is radicalization?

Answer 2

A process involving the escalation of beliefs, feelings, and behaviors toward justifying intergroup violence.
Both violent and nonviolent actions.

Question 3

What is online extremism?

Answer 3

Internet activism conducted by individuals or groups with doctrinally extremist views.

Question 4

Why do extremists use the internet?

Answer 4

• Organizations –> to disseminate propoganda, recruit members, plan logistics, and secure funding.
• Individuals –> to radicalize, map networks, and support increased participation

Question 5

Strategies for tackling online extremism are

Answer 5

1. Reactive measures: combining education, credible messaging, and content regulation is crucial
2. Proactive measures: focus on strong, proactive messaging that challenges extremist ideas while offering positive alternatives.

Question 6

What is a lone actor?

Answer 6

An individual who commits and act of terrorism on their own, neither part nor formally directed by an organized group.

Question 7

What is leakage in terrorism?

Answer 7

When family and friends were aware of the individual’s intent to engage in terrorism-related activities because the offender verbally told them (in 59.2% of the cases).

Question 8

What is hostile reconnaissance?

Answer 8

The information gathering phase of attack planning and is vital to the process.

Question 9

Where does the EVIL DONE framework stand for?

Answer 9

EVIL: Exposed, Vital, Iconic, Legitimate
DONE: Destructible, Occupied, Near, Easy

Lone actors will travel further for iconic targets, less far for symbolic and arbitrary targets.

Question 10

Where are higher levels of terrorism?

Answer 10

In places with higher levels of GDP (bruto binnenlands product), urbanization, fractionalization, where they are switching to a democracy.

Question 11

Where are lower levels of terrorism?

Answer 11

Where there is globalization.

Question 12

What kind of policy did Europe use and what kind of policy do they want to change to?

Answer 12

Past –> crisis-driven policy: something needs to have happened for the policies to develop further.
Future/present –> proactive policy: invest more in prevention initiatives.

Question 13

Why is terrorism seen as a transboundary wicked problem?

Answer 13

It is hard to do a pre-post test and hard to evaluate policies.

Question 14

How is extremist content regulated on the internet?

Answer 14

• Policy guidelines
• Human flaggers (looks at online content –> not really ethical) –> content moderators, user reports, EU internet referral units
• Automation –> digital ‘fingerprints’, behavior vs content, hybrid model.

Question 15

What are the challenges in content removal?

Answer 15

1. Exposure to disturbing content
2. Rapid innovation
3. Changing/Many definitions (also threats to free speech)
4. Power of social media companies