Youth, being the most energetic, developmental, and progressive part of society, is also the most vulnerable part of society, exposed to violent ideologies and extremist manifestations. It is observed that from the past decade, the exposure and awareness of youth have dramatically increased due to the inclusion of new technologies that have altogether revolutionized the concept of connectivity and communication. In this context, extremist groups have been using the social media domain as a main strategic tool to reach out to the youth through indoctrination and intimidation. Globally, 4.26 billion people use social media, and the projected number in 2027 is around six billion. These statistics entail the extent social media has influenced and lives of the individual. From learning to innovation, from business to health and governance, social media has become an essential component of human activity at the individual and state levels. Since the advent of the 21st century, social media has emerged as a major driving force in the ongoing global political economy. Media and especially social media has superseded even the religious and political philosophies in accumulating human sentiment and general consent around global political issues. The downside of the entire issue is the spread of negative propaganda, misinformation, and lack of investigation. Consequently, the accumulation of distortion in the process of communication and the manipulation of social trends has created a vacuum between reality and perceived perceptions. Youths are either naïve or aloof with the root causes and significantly focused on the superficiality of the problems. Usually, their reactions emerge from biased and misleading interpretations of politico-economic issues. Hence, young minds are manipulated by opportunists and malicious forces for the attainment of petty agendas at the expense of social harmony and peace. This dangerous reality is being manifested in the extremist and nonflexible viewpoints and beliefs of youth in present times. Youth has rather become the victim of presumptuousness. They are ready to jump to conclusions, turning blind eye to the surroundings, root causes, and realities associated with the issue of serious socio-political concerns.
Countering violent extremism is a complex phenomenon. There is consensus amongst academics and policymakers that countering violent extremism programs can be a more effective way of tackling extremism in comparison with hard options. By using social media two strategies are under practice: positive and negative measures. Positive CVE strategies produce counter-content to challenge extremist narratives. A negative method is to design, filter, take down and censor the content of extremist groups. The Internet is an important source of dissemination of counter-narratives in multiple languages, and larger communities and reaches out to geographically diverse audiences. But supporting networks of terrorism are under use to pursue such activities.
There is a three-pillared strategy for the implementation of online counter-narratives: The message, The messengers, and the media. “The message, which requires the creation of multi-layered and attractive counter-messages to terrorist group ideology that is tailored to individual groups. Linking to existing narratives, appealing to emotional connections and the sensitive use of humor can be successful content ideas.” The messengers comprised civil society, religious leaders, government officials, and even former leaders of extremist groups that have left their affiliation. We can summarize by saying that legitimized groups have a say in society. The third and most important element is the media which has the responsibility for the careful publication and dissemination of counter-narrative messages.
There is no single integrated approach that can provide the solution to all issues related to the use of social media in the spread and even countering of violent extremism. But there is no doubt about the vital and sensitive role which social media can play in providing the counter-narrative. “Developing coherent and coordinated international responses is therefore particularly challenging given national sensitivities regarding jurisdiction, issues around freedom of expression and allocation of responsibility for monitoring and censoring online information”.
With the passage of time, there has been a rise in extremist ideologies using social media, such as Facebook and youtube. Although there are many efforts to reduce accessibility to extremist content, this is not enough. Added strategies are required to deal with extremism not only as a security issue but also as a challenge to social order. Hard methods produce reaction so with the help of supporting public opinion indigenous discourse can be created.
In this perspective, it is pertinent to acknowledge that social media can be used as an effective tool to contain and prevent counter-violent extremism within the youth due to its immense infiltration in the daily life of the youth population as social media has been significantly used for radicalization. Similarly, it can be used for de-radicalization through developing a structural as well as a societal-driven strategy for counter-narrative, content verification, defaming propaganda, and mind mapping.
The writer is the Chairperson, Professor of Political Science at the University of Punjab, Lahore from where she also obtained her Ph.D. Her areas of interest are National Security, Water Politics in South Asia, Extremism and Counter Extremism, Pakistan’s Diplomatic Foreign Policy, and Domestic Politics of Pakistan.