Young people in radicalization: Internet as a new recruitment field

Young people in radicalization: Internet as a new recruitment field

Vienna, Österreich - In Austria, the terrorist threat from radicalized Islamists remains high. This emerges from the statements of Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, the director of the government of State Protection and Message Service (DSN). In an interview, he emphasized that there is no concrete indications of upcoming attacks, but there is a "high abstract risk", which illustrates the urgency of the situation. Haijawi-Pirchner speaks of an average double-digit number of endangers that are getting younger and younger. Most of them are men, but the proportion of female followers also increases. This represents a challenge for the security authorities, since some of the dangers are even dismissal, such as vienna.at reported.

In addition, Haijawi-Pirchner showed that radicalization is increasingly being carried out over the Internet. Platforms such as TikTok and Telegram have replaced traditional focal mosques by acting as new recruitment locations for extremist ideologies. According to the constitutional protection report in 2023, the fascination for violent content has a major impact on the radicalization process, which is reflected in the spread of brutal videos on social media. The DSN plans to act against these tendencies at an early stage through targeted programs at schools, especially among very young people to avoid a potential threat to public security.

Need for legal measures

Another central point of Haijawi-Pirchner's explanations is the demand for improved legal framework for monitoring encrypted communication. It is necessary to monitor specific threats to plan the attacks in communication in order to be able to intervene in good time. In addition, the financing of terrorism is discussed because there are indications of funds that flow from Austria in the Gaza Strip. This leads to an investigation that also includes the ensuring Pro-Hamas material for house searches, so DSN.GV.AT . The protection of the constitution thus emphasizes the seriousness of the situation and the constant efforts to ensure security in Austria.