Minister for Law and Home Affairs K. Shanmugam says that more young people are getting exposed to radical views through social media. (Photo: straitstimes.com) Singapore (VNA) – Singaporean Minister of Law and Home Affairs K. Shanmugam on September 16 said that onlineradicalisation is a key factor in pushing the terror threat in the countrytoday.
Speaking at an event held by Ministry of Home Affairs,the minister stressed that more young people are getting exposed to radicalviews through social media and information can now be shared and multiplied ata very fast and unprecedented scale.
He acknowledged that if someone goes down the radicalisationpath, he can very quickly gain access to hundreds, thousands of articles, postsand videos. Once someone is caught in something, the social media algorithmsare such that they keep feeding him more and more of the same.
The minister added that if anyone is interested in a certaintype of negative approach, he will quickly link up with many others who thinkalong the same lines around the world, form connections and their negativebeliefs become self-reinforcing.
He said there are people who deliberately and maliciously misleadothers with wrong information, adding that they play to xenophobia and distrustor lead others towards terrorism and radicalisation.
He said terrorists and extremists are targeting youngpeople on social media, noting that out of the 49 self-radicalised individualswho were dealt with under the Internal Security Act (ISA) since 2015, 11 ofthem were below the age of 20.
Of the 11 young people, five of them made plans tocarry out attacks in Singapore, he added.
In February, the Internal Security Department (ISD)said a 15-year-old self-radicalised student who thought about carrying outknife attacks and beheading non-Muslims in popular tourist areas here wasdetained under the ISA.
Speaking to volunteers, including members of the ReligiousRehabilitation Group (RRG) and Inter-Agency Aftercare Group (ACG) he said the government has laws and frameworksto take down and deal with these kinds of content, and that such cases aredealt with quickly.
The RRG brings together Islamic scholars and teacherswho voluntarily assist in the religious counselling of radicalised individuals,while the ACG provides assistance to detainees and their families.
Since 2002, out of the 95 Singaporeans who had been detained underthe ISA for terrorism-related conduct, 82 of them made good progress in theirrehabilitation and have been released and reintegrated into society, said theminister./.
