Extremists using COVID conspiracy theory, online games to recruit young people: Report

The right-wing extremists are using conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 and online gaming as a way to recruit young people as data revealed that half of the most serious cases of suspected radicalisation reported by schools and colleges involve far-right activity. According to the figures published by the UK Home Office, the young people in education who were thought to be at risk of radicalisation by the right-wing were two times greater than from Islamic extremists. The latest figures were a part of the government’s Prevent anti-extremism programme, covering 2020-21.

Shared on the official website, it showed that 310 people were referred to the programme by schools, colleges and universities because of far-right links. But, just 157 were referred because of vulnerability to Islamic extremism. While fewer than one in five cases of suspected Islamic extremism was escalated by the authorities and nearly one in three cases involving far-right extremism were passed on to the government’s Channel scheme. The ‘Channel’ programme aimed to safeguard individuals who are believed to be most likely to be radicalised and drawn into terrorist activity. 

Far-right extremism has been increasing says Prevent coordinator

As per The Guardian report, Sean Arbuthnot, a Prevent coordinator for Leicestershire, said that while far-right extremism has been increasing for several years, the online applications and platforms were increasingly cropping up in referrals such as gaming referrals which include gaming platforms and chat apps such as Discord as the rightwing groups sought to reach young people. Reportedly, while eight people and racist right-wing groups have been prescribed by the government, Arbuthnot said he was concerned by far-right groups that are not yet banned attaching themselves to existing controversies. 

Arbuthnot was quoted by the media outlet, “[Some] during the pandemic conducted leafleting campaigns, where they would promote the narrative that Covid is a hoax, that hospital wards are empty, and that you shouldn’t get the vaccine. Then they load their leaflets with pseudo-scientific evidence. But at the same time they drop leaflets purporting that white people are going to be a minority in Britain, which plays into peoples fears.”

“If you engage with them on a YouTube platform, and scroll through the comments section, you may then find links to more encrypted chatrooms or extreme right-wing codes or signs and symbols that you may be tempted to research,” he added. “That’s one of the troubling ways right-wing extremists can play on the fears that have resulted from Covid-19 and conspiracies, to groom, essentially, vulnerable young people in the online space.”

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