New forms of terrorism rooted in conspiracy theories could emerge after the coronavirus pandemic, the EU’s terror chief has warned.
Gilles de Kerchove, the EU counter-terrorism coordinator, said that while terrorists inspired by Isis and al-Qaeda remained the biggest security threat, a “major change in society” was underway.
In an interview published in the CTC Sentinel journal, he voiced concern about the “potential future rise of new forms of terrorism, rooted in conspiracy theories and technophobia”.
“We have already seen small-scale acts of violence caused by a belief in conspiracy theories – for example, against telecom masts – and given the amount of disinformation online, we could see more serious examples of this in the future,” he added, referring to vandalism by people believing 5G technology is harmful.
“I am also concerned about increasingly violent ecologist and animal rights groups.”
His comments were published on Tuesday, as a new wave of Extinction Rebellion protests started and after a weekend that saw large demonstrations by conspiracy theorists.
Thousands gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square on Saturday to protest against lockdown restrictions, vaccines, 5G and supposed establishment plots.
Speaking to Raffaello Pantucci, a senior associate fellow in international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), Mr De Kerchove said coronavirus had sparked a rise in “conspiracy theories that have no direct link to existing extremist ideologies”.
In June, the UK’s extremism chief told The Independent conspiracy theories must be tackled before they can be used to spark violence and terrorism.
Sara Khan, who leads the Commission for Countering Extremism, said the coronavirus pandemic was seeing “wacky” claims move into the mainstream and have real-world consequences.
“We’ve always treated conspiracy theories as being something harmless, wild and wacky but I think that’s been a mistake,” she added.
“We need to classify them based on harm and the types of behaviours they encourage. If they are inciting hatred, violence or justifying terrorism or inciting violence that’s not harmless.
“We need a better and more sophisticated policy response.”
Mr De Kerchove also raised concerns about growing far-right extremism and said left-wing extremism was also thought to be rising.
“Left-wing violent extremists are responsible for a large number of non-lethal attacks,” he added.
“Depending on how the economic crisis develops in the wake of the health crisis we are currently facing, inequality is going to be exacerbated, and this might inspire more violent left-wing extremism that could have the potential to become more lethal and more geographically dispersed than it currently is.”
The Belgian official stressed that it was “not at the same level of intensity as right-wing violent extremism”, warning that groups were strengthening international links and becoming unified around a theory that white people are being “replaced” in the west.
“Structured right-wing violent extremist groups often know exactly how far they can go in their statements and in their activities to remain just within the limits of what is legal,” Mr De Kerchove said.
“In the meantime, they leave it to ‘fanboys’ on the internet to take action by themselves, without any risk to the organisation.”
He said that coronavirus may have increased the potential for terrorists to stage mass-casualty attacks, because of a perception that police and security services are distracted and increased vulnerability to radicalisation during lockdown.
“We must prevent the current health and economic crisis from becoming a security crisis as well,” Mr De Kerchove said.
Ah yes, the official narrative is “resistance to our tyranny is terrorism”.
Like every other resistance group got labeled.
Been called worse by better and I’ll take that as a compliment.
F u very much!
“Ah yes, the official narrative is “resistance to our tyranny is terrorism”.”
My thoughts exactly!
Gotta keep that terror threat alive even after a “pandemic” or large scale event is dying down.
Gotta keep pushing for that one world government.
See a naked emperor parading down the street = TERRORIST!
They know damn well the number is bigger than it’s ever been on this planet so they’re turning to their last ditch propaganda. This WHOLE covid thing is ALL about culling the “herd” that has always been the major threat to their feeble grip on power & leaving just a weak manageable number. If they are not “toppled” soon they will go back to their age-old more expensive & messy method – world war.