The head of Australia’s top intelligence agency has warned people like the Christchurch terrorist are being radicalized on social media and artificial intelligence could make the situation worse.
Director General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (Asio), Mike Burgess, told a social media summit in Adelaide that these social channels were “both a goldmine and a treasure trove” creating communities and divides. He pointed out that the Internet is “the strongest incubator of extremism in the world”.
He said people were adopting anti-authority ideologies, conspiracy theories and various grievances, and while social media wasn’t the only driver, he said Asio saw it as a significant one.
Social media – gold mine, but also the treasure
“Social media allows extremist ideologies, conspiracies, misinformation and disinformation to be shared on an unprecedented scale and speed,” he said.
He said that radicalization can now take days and weeks, instead of months and years, as it used to be, according to him The Guardian.
“The Christchurch massacre is just one example. The author used the Internet to research and refine his ideology, as well as social media to broadcast his anger live,” he said.
Extremists, also very active on dedicated Telegram groups
It said that in one case, an alleged perpetrator admitted that the availability of extremist content online pushed him “over the edge”. The Asio boss also singled out Telegram, which recently agreed to cooperate with judicial authorities after its founder Pavel Durov was arrested and charged in France for failing to act against criminals who use the app.
“They share content from the Internet on social media and use social media as a gateway to dark parts of the Internet — places like a Telegram chat group known as Terrorgram. Violent nationalist and racist extremists – including Australians – are using Terrorgram to discuss with outside extremists and with each other how to start a race war in this country,” he said.
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Source: www.descopera.ro
