Stop right-wing evil feeding online

Two years ago, Australians watched in horror as a terrorist attack occurred in two mosques in New Zealand. As members of Christchurch’s Muslim community gathered for midday prayers, a right-wing extremist entered each house of worship and for 17 minutes fired indiscriminately.

Fifty-one innocent people were killed, and 50 others injured. The attack was live-streamed on Facebook and viewed 4000 times before being removed.

The terrorist was an Australian who had uploaded an online manifesto detailing the attack. If ever there were a warning call to the Australian government on the threat of right-wing extremism in Australia, it was the Christchurch attack on March 15, 2019.

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Recognising this, the Australian government, along with 48 other countries, UNESCO, the European Commission, Council of Europe and 10 major technology companies, adopted the Christchurch Call, a commitment to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. It asked signatory governments to put in place measures to combat the use of the internet for terrorist and violent extremist purposes.

But two years later, the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto is still available online in Australia and around the world. When attacks take place, online right-wing extremist communities will often rate manifestos for the quality of the writing, as well as their body count “high scores”. Manifestos don’t only inspire and incite; they often provide the ideological “glue” that connects disparate ideas and ideologies.

To date, the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto has been directly referenced as inspiration in the manifestos of several overseas right-wing extremist attacks including the synagogue shooting in Poway, California and Walmart shooting in El Paso, Texas.

These manifestos can resonate for years. Last year, a man in Adelaide was jailed for possessing illegal weapons after he posted on Facebook in support of the Christchurch attack.

In NZ, individuals can be listed as terrorist entities, making it illegal to share or sell manifestos online. The Christchurch shooter is listed in NZ. In the face of rising threats from right-wing extremism, proscribing individuals as terrorist entities is a reform Australia should seriously consider.

Content moderation — propaganda takedowns, bans and de-platforming — is a viable mechanism for denying space to extremist groups and individuals and their corrosive content. Social media companies have removed extremist content at the behest of governments; Islamic State’s social media presence was truncated as a result.

But when it comes to ideologically motivated extremism, the Morrison government is simply not doing it. The Department of Home Affairs referred 598 pieces of terrorist and violent extremist content to social media platforms for removal in 2019-20, but only 11 were identified as extreme right wing. We know there is more ideologically motivated extremist content than this.

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess stated in his annual threat assessment this week that the pandemic and resulting economic and social impacts have intensified the spread of extremist ideologies online, radicalising males as young as 14. Ideologically motivated extremists, especially those spreading extreme right-wing narratives, take advantage of weak online content moderation to reach wider audiences. It is true such groups are savvy with how they use online content, but that is precisely why they are so dangerous and why their messages of hatred and division need to be carefully monitored and moderated.

Many of these ideologically motivated extremist groups use Twitter and Facebook to mainstream their ideas, then move to encrypted platforms where more insidious narratives are shared.

We need to work better with tech companies to identify and disrupt the spread of hate speech, right-wing extremist propaganda and recruitment content. No one should be able to access this when we have the means to stop them. But we also need to more broadly recognise and face the threat of right-wing extremism. This problem is bigger than the internet.

We have never even had a proper conversation about the extent to which the Christchurch terrorist was radicalised in this country. When the NZ Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Terrorist Attack on Christchurch Masjidain reported in December, it noted there were radical voices and groups in Australia that contributed to his radicalisation.

There are voices, some in mainstream media, some in mainstream politics, that are encouraging, or at least giving comfort to, these types of ideologically motivated extremist groups.

We need to be talking about the threat ideologically motivated extremism poses to Australia. We need to be awake to this threat and have serious conversations on how to keep Australians safe.

The Christchurch terrorist is an abomination, a disgrace to everything Australia stands for as a country and a society. But we would be naive to think there isn’t a growing number of individuals in Australia attracted to his views.

We cannot sweep the events of March 15, 2019 under the rug. We must tackle them head-on and work together to confront the forces behind right-wing extremism in Australia, in our communities or online, wherever we find them.

Kristina Keneally is deputy leader of the opposition in the Senate, shadow minister for home affairs and shadow minister for immigration and citizenship.

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