Radicalization via social media: Villach and Solingen in the crosshairs!

Radicalization via social media: Villach and Solingen in the crosshairs!

A frightening case of violence has terrified Austria and Germany: In Villach, Austria, a 23-year-old Syrian attacked a group of people with a folding knife and fatally injured a 14-year-old. The perpetrator, Ahmad G., had become radicalized through social media and was apparently a fan of extremist content on TikTok. An ISIS flag was found during a search of his home, leading investigators to conclude his attack had a terrorist motive. It also turned out that Ahmad G. was not classified as an extremist threat, which puts the security authorities at a loss for explanation, as the “Krone” reported.

Radicalization through social networks

A similar incident occurred a little later in Solingen, Germany. A 26-year-old Syrian, named Issa al H., turned himself in to the police after a brutal knife attack during a city festival. Three people were killed and eight were injured, some seriously. The terrorist militia IS claimed responsibility for the crime and described the attacker as one of its “soldiers”, which underlines the worrying developments in dealing with radicalization via the Internet. According to the NZZ, experts are already talking about a “TikTokization of Islamism,” with social media serving as central platforms for the spread of extremist ideologies.

North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul expressed concerns about the increasing threat of Islamist terror, which is particularly driven by modern, digital channels. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is monitoring over 2,600 extremist Salafists in North Rhine-Westphalia, and there are fears that more and more young people are falling into the clutches of hate preachers. The circumstances of the two incidents illustrate that authorities are encountering new challenges as more and more attackers strike from the shadows of the anonymity of the Internet. Investigations into both cases are still ongoing and security authorities are under pressure to develop effective measures to combat radicalization, while warnings about this from politicians are becoming louder.