VIOLENT TERRORIST GROUPS have shaped their propaganda using Covid-19 misinformation to “advance their narrative”, a Europol report has found. 

The EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT) is produced by Europol on an annual basis and is used by police forces and policy makers across the European community to devise strategies against terrorists. 

As previously reported by The Journal the report outlined the arrest of 14 terror suspects in Ireland last year. 

The broader report, which examines the situation across Europe, looks at trends in terror groups and how they disseminate their information.

The report found the groups were exploiting Covid-19 restrictions in order to grab the attention of people vulnerable to radicalisation. 

It said  the pandemic lockdown measures, coupled with people’s increased online presence and a higher level of social isolation across the board “deepened individuals’ susceptibility to radicalisation”. 

“For those advocating extremist ideologies, the crisis has emerged as an opportunity to advance their narrative. From the onset of the pandemic, jihadist, but more notably right-wing, left-wing and anarchist terrorist and extremist groups, have framed COVID-19 themes in line with their respective ideology.

“New topics of propaganda have been taken up by both right-wing and left-wing extremists during the pandemic, including conspiracy theories on the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, disinformation on the vaccination roll-out and allegations of mass surveillance by authorities. 

“Websites, blogs, social media and various encrypted messaging applications have played a major role in the dissemination of propaganda material during the crisis,” the report stated.

The report authors also identified the gaming industry as a significant area where terrorists are targeting their propaganda.    

“The combination of social isolation and more time spent online during the pandemic has exacerbated the risks posed by violent extremist propaganda and terrorist content online, particularly among younger people and minors.

“Gaming platforms and services are increasingly used by right-wing terrorists to channel terrorist propaganda targeting a younger generation of users. Pandemic-linked restrictions also have the potential to exacerbate pre-existing mental health issues potentially prompting violent acts that resemble terrorist or violent extremist attacks,” the report warned. 

The report said the most active group using Covid-19 as a recruiting tool was far right-wing factions but that all terror groups were also making moves in this area. 

While Jihadists, particularly al-Qaeda, particularly focus on use of messaging service RocketChat – there is also use of Telegram, WhatsApp, Element and Minds.

The report does find some positives to be taken from the pandemic restrictions when it comes to terrorism – it found that the restrictions hampered physical activities such as networking, training, recruitment and weapons procurement.

“Traditional terrorism financing activities and physical flows for circulating money were also disrupted.

“Online financial services and virtual assets have become more prominent in terrorism financing, especially in the jihadist terrorist and right-wing extremist scene,” it said. 

The report did caution that rather than halting the activities it just delayed them. 

“Nonetheless, (preparation of) attacks and incidents continued despite the COVID-19 restrictions and, in some cases, the latter were motivated by it.

“Extremist views and behaviours linked to anti-COVID-19 measures and antigovernment sentiments, but not associated with established terrorist and violent extremist ideologies, emerged in some Member States.

“They were mostly noted in relation to groups formed loosely online, and materialised in threats made against politicians, government representatives, and health authorities.

“They also threatened to harm the police at protests as well as vandalise COVID-19 vaccination and test locations,” it found. 

Croatia, Italy and the Netherlands were identified as particular hotspots for such activities with arrests for incitement to attack Government and parliament. There were also arrests for bomb and arson attacks on vaccination centres.

The report found that previous Jihadist trends of chemical, biological and radiological weapons had continued but only in an indirect way. 

This content, rather than advocating for a biological weapon, was only disseminated in the body of other content.    

“Although the COVID-19 pandemic has placed bioterrorism under a spotlight, in the second year of the pandemic online propaganda and discussions in closed online forums on the possibility of weaponising a virus decreased,” it found.