The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) created a first shock wave by announcing last week the arrest of an Ottawa teenager for terrorist activities. The federal police, usually terse, created a second one, just as upsetting, by publicly alarming themselves about a broader “growing trend” among this cohort which is sinking, on the Web, into violent extremism and terrorism . A rare admission of concern which demonstrates a worrying vulnerability that must urgently be addressed.
The list of charges filed against the 15-year-old young man from Ottawa, arrested last Friday, is disturbing: including having encouraged terrorist activity “against Jewish people” and having encouraged this activity by being in possession of explosive substances “with intent to endanger life”.
During the arrest, the RCMP discovered acetone and an oxidant (two products used in the manufacture of explosive devices), as well as metal ball bearings (added to these devices so that they were even more destructive). The aborted scenario sends shivers down your spine.
Just like the review of four other comparable arrests, in the space of barely six months. In Calgary, Kingston and Toronto, 16- and 17-year-olds are also accused of terrorism, while another was charged last month by American authorities.
Terrorist allegiances differ somewhat (jihadist groups or a masculinist supremacist movement), as do the targets chosen. But in several cases, the radicalized adolescents communicated with their new correspondents – recruiters or recruits – on the Internet, TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat.
Social networks, discussion forums and online games have become, for many, isolated in front of their computers or mobile phones during the pandemic, the place of social convergence. To the rhythm of clever algorithms, however, conversations deviate. The content, increasingly ideological and violent too. An arsenal of inexhaustible clandestine exchange spaces for fanatics, who spread their gall and pervert with complete impunity.
The response, which has become imperative, must be concerted, between community prevention and education efforts. However controversial it may be, regulation of digital platforms also seems to have become inevitable.
Justin Trudeau’s government has been working on this for four years now, with the aim of curbing the online sharing of hate speech, advocating violence, terrorism or sexual content without consent. The delicate balance — between prohibiting harmful hate speech that could violate the peace, and protecting essential freedom of expression — is complex, but essential. The challenge is significant, as evidenced by Ottawa’s repeated postponement of the tabling of this bill.
The web giants, however, have exposed their lack of goodwill and their refusal to voluntarily regulate their platforms. Google is rejecting, these days, requests from coroners, health authorities and families of the missing who would like the multinational to stop sharing the address of a site advising various methods of suicide. The deaths of at least three Quebecers are linked to it. The lure of profit from these “clicks” exceeds the social conscience of managers.
Inaction, to curb the radicalization of adolescents who are still too malleable and easily influenced, is no longer an option. Content posted to incite them to harm should be removed. The algorithms which, neither seen nor known, redirect them there must be marked. And couldn’t trolls and other anonymous accounts, robotized to manipulate from abroad, be deleted as soon as they are discovered? None of this is obviously easy to frame. The risks of abuse are very real and cannot be ignored. However, the time has come for this thorny but necessary reflection.
Because while this extremism proliferates in virtual space, it has not disappeared from the real world. And the current proliferation of hatred, exacerbated by the conflict between Israel and Hamas, gives cause for concern. The number of hate crimes and incidents against the Jewish and Arab-Muslim communities continues to grow (126 and 38, respectively, since October 7 in Montreal alone, reports the Montreal Police Department).
The perpetual evolution of virtual platforms will make it an eternal work in progress. These disinformation and radicalization campaigns will find new, obscure forums in which to take refuge at every opportunity. The remedies will continually have to be remodeled and reinvented. The immensity of the task should not, however, prevent the beginning of a solution. The current anarchy of the Web cannot continue.