- Home Secretary warns of increasing terrorism threat in the UK
- Islamist and right-wing extremism identified as primary dangers
- Online platforms and technology pose challenges to counter-terrorism efforts
Home Secretary Suella Braverman spoke following an update to the government’s CONTEST anti-terrorism strategy. Islamist and right-wing extremism were cited as the two most significant threats in the United Kingdom.
The danger of terrorism is “increasing,” according to Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
The cabinet minister spoke as the government updated its CONTEST counter-terrorism strategy after five years.
Ms. Braverman stated, “We now face a domestic terrorist threat that is less predictable, harder to detect, and more difficult to investigate. A persistent and evolving threat from Islamist terrorist groups abroad. And an operating environment in which technology continues to provide both opportunity and risk for our counter-terrorism efforts.
Therefore, we believe that the danger of terrorism is once again increasing.
In a speech accompanying the report’s release, Ms. Braverman stated that the increase was from a “lower base” and that the risk is “not as great as it was a few years ago.”
The CONTEST strategy has existed since 2003, with the most recent iteration occurring in 2018 in response to the five terror attacks in 2017 – including the Manchester Arena bombing and the London Bridge attack.
Since then, the Home Office reports that there have been nine terror attacks that have resulted in the deaths of six people and injuries to twenty others, with an additional 39 attacks foiled.
What are the primary dangers?
This year’s assessment emphasizes that “Islamist terrorism” is the “primary domestic terrorist threat”
As of March of this year, it comprises “approximately 67% of attacks since 2018, three-quarters of MI5’s caseload. And 64% of those in custody for terrorism-related offenses.”
The Home Office estimates that right-wing extremism accounts for approximately 22% of attacks since 2018, a quarter of MI5’s caseload, and 28% of those detained for terrorism-related offenses.
Regarding Islamist extremism, the review indicates that there is a “diminishing” connection between perpetrators and “explicit affiliation and fixed ideological alignment” with any one group.
This is a result of the “relative decline” of al Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS), also known as Daesh.
There are an increasing number of “issues and grievances from a wider range of sources becoming influences and drivers” of terrorists due to the decline in the number of Islamist leaders and the expansion of the online world.
According to a recent study, there is less organization among right-wing extremists than among Islamic terrorists.
Extreme right-wing groups typically consist of “informal online communities that facilitate international links” rather than formal organizations with a leadership structure and plan to seize territory.
The hazards of innovation
In the CONTEST update, distributed structures and online organization are highlighted multiple times.
The research states that new technology and online platforms offer both opportunities and threats to anti-terrorism efforts.
“Terrorists utilize technology to conceal their networks, disseminate their propaganda, and facilitate their attacks.
“Technology is a critical enabler of our counter-terrorism efforts, where careful and proportionate use of cutting-edge techniques can make our response more efficient and effective.”
The report attributed the modest increase in adolescent counterterrorism police investigations and arrests to online behaviour.
In the past five years, more than half of under-18 terrorism convicts were charged with non-violent offences. Such as accumulating or sharing terrorist information.
The internet has contributed to the “rapid proliferation” of online terrorist content, including live streams of attacks. Which the CONTEST assessment deems “particularly potent and harmful.”
The review also states that artificial intelligence has “implications for both our approach to counter-terrorism and the threats we face, with the potential for a terrorist activity to become more sophisticated with less effort”.
“While it could significantly accelerate the process of threat detection, terrorists are likely to use it to create and spread radicalizing content, propaganda, and instructional materials, as well as to plan and execute attacks,” the report continues.
End-to-end encryption, for which the government seeks to create a back door, and cryptocurrencies are highlighted as areas of concern.
