Extremists exploiting lockdown to get support

EXTREMIST GROUPS are using conspiracy theories and fears about Covid-19 to “attract a more mainstream audience” according to a new report.

An annual update into the Prevent strategy in Bradford will be given to councillors next week.

The report highlights how groups are using anti-lockdown and “free speech” messages to mask their more extremist views, attracting a new group of supporters in the process.

Prevent was set up to tackle the spread of extremism.

Although the original focus was on Islamic extremism, there has been increased focus on far-Right extremism in recent years.

Each year Bradford Council’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee is given an update on how the Prevent strategy is being implemented in the district.

The meeting will hear one of the big issues in the past year has been how extremist groups have used fears about Covid 19 and frustration about lockdown to try and entice people who would not normally fall prey to such groups.

A report to members says: “Right-wing extremism and terrorism continues to be a growing risk, successfully tapping into uncertainties around Covid and also international events.

“The development of their tactics to use online platforms and push a ‘free speech’ narrative and discuss conspiracy theories, enables the extreme far-right to deflect from their own extremism and attract a more mainstream audience.

“Individuals can be very vulnerable to the online narrative.”

Members will also be given a report looking at conspiracy theories involving the pandemic.

The report was written last summer, following the first national lockdown, but many of the issues raised in the document still remain almost a year into the pandemic.