Rise of the far-right Social media-savvy extremist groups are an increasing threat worldwide
Since the terrorist murder of Jo Cox, the Labour MP, in June 2016, there has been an increased focus on the threat posed by far-right extremists in Britain and elsewhere.
Last year, Darren Osborne was jailed for life for a terror attack near Finsbury Park mosque, north London, in which Makram Ali, a 51-year-old worshipper, died and a number of others were injured.
While there have been no other deadly UK attacks since that time, police have prevented at least four extreme Rightwing plots since March 2017.
In November 2018, a British soldier was jailed after he tried to radicalise fellow members of the Armed Forces and persuade them to join a neo-nazi terrorist group in order to fight a race war.
Cpl Mikko Vehvilainen, 34, secretly worked as a “recruiter” for the banned National Action group.
The married father-of-three, described by his commanding officers as an “outstanding soldier” who risked his life for his country, was also a white supremacist with a “long and deep-seated adherence” to racist ideology.
The rise of groups such as National Action suggests the far-right are becoming more organised. Of the 221 terrorist prisoners who are serving sentences in Britain, 13 per cent are said to be “extreme Right-wing”.
As with Islamic extremism, the internet has provided a fertile recruiting ground, with social media platforms used to spread propaganda, radicalise new recruits and inspire attacks.
In 2010, the Met’s counterterrorism command launched the world’s first internet referral unit to tackle extremist material online. Just seven years later, more than a quarter of material being referred to it was of an extreme Right-wing nature. Sir Mark Rowley, the former head of the Met’s counter-terror unit, said: “Social media companies are monetising our attention. That has helped this sort of ideology, these conspiracy theories both on the Islamist side of the problem and on the extreme Rightwing side. They help them propagate and grow, and it helps people form cells and networks of like-minded individuals.”