Action required

Radicals on the net: What steps are needed now

Experts believe that politicians and social media platforms have a responsibility to curb radicalization (symbolic image).

(Bild: EPA)

Following the suspected Islamist-motivated terrorist attack in Villach, experts are calling for stricter social media regulations and faster asylum procedures to curb radicalization. There are also calls for pressure on providers such as Tiktok. The chairman of the Free Syrian Community Association warns that not all Syrians should be condemned across the board.

Abdulhkeem Alshater, chairman of the Free Syrian Community Association, has recently registered an increasing number of hate comments and racist insults against the Syrian community in Austria. After the attack, some people called for "everyone to be deported to Syria". But: "Not all Syrians are like that. Terrorism doesn't belong to any religion either, terrorism harms us," Alshater warns against lumping all of the attacker's compatriots together.

Like many other people, he fled from Syria to Austria in 2015. "We fled from exactly these people. IS killed Muslims there". The fact that the food delivery man who hit the attacker with his car and stopped him also comes from Syria also shows "that not everyone is the same".

Call for pressure on suppliers like Tiktok
Alshater sees several reasons for the radicalization of young people: On the one hand, stricter rules are needed to be able to take action against relevant content on Tiktok. Not only Syrians, but also Austrians watch these videos, according to the chairman of the Free Syrian Community Association.

This thesis is also underlined by political scientist Thomas Schmidinger, who generally advocates a stronger focus on radicalizing influencers. For videos to be removed from the Tiktok platform, they must violate the community guidelines. Content is either removed from the platform by TikTok's own technology or by human moderators.

Measures can of course be considered by exerting pressure on these networks to stop disseminating certain extremist content.

Politikwissenschaftler Thomas Schmidinger

Since 7 June 2022, the European Union has had a rule that internet platforms must delete terrorist content for the purpose of radicalization within one hour of it being identified. If the regulations are systematically violated, internet platforms may have to pay a fine of up to four percent of their turnover.

The short video platform TikTok has drawn up a guideline against violent extremism in accordance with the EU Terrorist Online Regulation - but extreme content is still being distributed. Schmidinger is therefore calling for measures to be considered to exert targeted pressure on platforms such as Tiktok so that they do not continue to disseminate extremist content.

Five victims were injured in the terrorist attack, some of them seriously - one 14-year-old boy died.

(Bild: EPA)

The funeral march in memory of the victims took place in Villach on Tuesday evening.

(Bild: EPA)

Online media in the focus of Islamist influencers
Online media would be the breeding ground for Islamist influencers to spread their extremist message, as Ferdinand Haberl, Deputy Director of the Documentation Center for Political Islam, also stated in an official statement. Islamist influencers and groups are increasingly operating across national borders, especially online and in social media, where they can often reach a wider audience. Young people in particular are being brought into contact with extremist ideas in a low-threshold manner and, in the worst case, radicalized.

Many Syrians would like to return to their home country, but only when there is security, freedom and democracy.

Abdulhkeem Alshater, Vorsitzender des Vereins Freie syrische Gemeinde

Alshater also sees a clear deficit in the integration of refugees, who should not be left alone after their arrival. Young people would sit here without employment and wait for feedback from the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum. In his opinion, asylum procedures should be processed more quickly and asylum seekers should be given access to the labor market in the meantime, he said.

Wars and crises as a breeding ground for radicalization
Major events such as the coronavirus pandemic or the wars in Ukraine and Gaza can also lead to increased radicalization. According to Austrian researcher Julia Ebner, the question of who is particularly at risk of being targeted by radical content as a result of the psychological and economic crises of recent years needs to be asked more frequently. This could counteract the excessive polarization.

Terrorism researcher Daniela Pisoiu also emphasized the role of crises in an interview with the Morgenjournal on Monday. According to Pisoiu, the pandemic has offered extremist actors an opportunity to use the situation to "achieve their goals, destabilize states and societies in the West and, above all, shake confidence in governments".

October 7, 2023, the day of the Hamas attack on Israel, led to an increase in anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim incidents in Austria. There was also a record high in right-wing extremist crimes in 2023. The Anne Frank Educational Centre warned that TikTok could radicalize people with anti-Semitic posts in a short space of time.