Analysts say the tendency of some Asian users online to be influenced by far-right radicalism and, in some cases, white supremacy, is becoming more prevalent in the digital age, and the effects of Young people may be among the most vulnerable groups.
“I have to admit… once I started, I just kept watching, and it shaped the way I felt about society,” Ethan, now 28, told This Week in Asia.
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In college, he said, many of his classmates were “significantly left-wing,” which led him to “question the status quo” and delve deeper into far-right beliefs.
Although Ethan himself has never crossed the Rubicon and identified himself as a white supremacist, he has developed hatred for racial minorities, LGBTQ people, and feminists, leading some analysts to label him as an “anti-woke” He admitted that he had become a person who could be described as such.
Terrorism analysts interviewed by Asia This Week said that although the incidence of far-right extremism in Asia is relatively small, it is seen as a form of “resistance to progressive change” and “reduction of exclusive privileges.” He said that number is likely to increase in the future.
Mounira Mustafa, managing director of Chasseur Group, an analytical consulting firm specializing in security issues, said young people perceive a “loss of privilege” and “a negative polarization reaction to progressive politics.” He said there was a high risk of accepting extremist ideology.
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“An individual’s lived experience accumulates and shapes his or her political perspective. The reasons why people become extremists or join extremist groups are manifold and include sociopolitical or economic reasons that undermine their self-esteem. “It may stem from anxiety or dissatisfaction with personal reasons,” she said.
In December 2020, a 16-year-old Protestant Christian of Indian ethnicity was detained for being radicalized by far-right extremist ideology. This was the first case of its kind to be dealt with under Singapore’s Internal Security Act.
The suspect reportedly made detailed plans and preparations to carry out terrorist attacks against Muslims at two mosques in the city using a machete.
Following the announcement of the incident by Singapore’s ISD, Home Affairs and Justice Minister K. Shanmugam said the teenager’s case was “extremely serious”.
“As I have said many times, violent impulses are not limited to any particular racial or religious group. They can occur in anyone. , the question is whether they will be exposed to and affected by hate speech,” Shanmugam warned.
In its Terrorism Threat Report released last year, the ISD said terrorist threats to Singapore inspired by far-right extremism abroad suggest that ideology is increasingly spreading.
The ISD report states that “far-right extremist elements often draw inspiration from each other in online communities,” and such threats are often linked to anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, immigration, and racial supremacy. It added that it is motivated by various conspiracy theories and ideologies related to.
Commenting on the two far-right extremism incidents in Singapore, Susan Sim, vice president of Asia at global intelligence and security consultancy Soufan Group, said teenagers are falling prey to misinformation and disinformation. He said that it seems that he got lost in the hole and developed. Fear and hatred towards “others”.
Kalicharan Veera Singham, a senior analyst at the South Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), said that despite being of different ethnicities, people who ignore racial differences and support “parts” of white supremacist ideology. He said there may be some.
“perhaps, [because of] Due to general ignorance about what the overall ideology means, some non-whites may cling to specific elements of the ideology that they find appealing, such as xenophobia, racism, or homophobia ” Singham added.
The concept of “racial purity” popularized by Western far-right ideologues has since been “retargeted” [people from] European countries and the United States,” said Sarwono, who studies online extremism and cybercrime at Diponegoro University in Indonesia.
This culminates in similar racist conspiracy theories and hatred of white people, often referred to as “colonizers,” he added.
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“It’s manly to fight for your tribe.”
Observers say there is also a gender dimension. In a commentary in the Financial Times in January, John Byrne-Murdoch wrote that “an ideological chasm is widening between young men and women” in countries on every continent.
“In the US, UK and Germany, young women now hold far more liberal positions than young men on immigration and racial justice, while older groups remain evenly matched. In most countries, women are moving to the left. “There is a shift and a trend towards men becoming stationary,” he wrote, blaming the #MeToo movement for the beginning of the divide.
In South Korea, Byrne-Murdoch writes, the ideological divide between men and women is particularly pronounced.
“In this country’s 2022 presidential election, older men and women voted in lockstep, while younger men strongly supported the right-wing People Power Party, and young women voted in roughly equal and opposite numbers. I supported the Liberal Democratic Party.”
Resistance against other communities, such as racial minorities and LGBTQ individuals, captures the need to maintain male power and status, Sim said.
“There is a theory in gender studies about toxic masculinity, which is that men are raised to believe that it is manly to fight for the tribe. In many cases, it is actually about maintaining male power and status. It’s about that.”
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Another Singaporean, William*, 27, was attending university when he first came across a page promoting motivational content for men that was consistent with many traditional views on gender norms.
“I was raised Christian, so certain things like ‘just as men are providers’ are values that resonate with me,” he said. “Then I also started receiving a lot of content that mocked ‘woke’ people, pronouns, and body positivity.”
Jeremy Sun, a lecturer at Nanyang Technological University, said certain online users would end up seeing such content because of social media algorithms. Social media algorithms predict what kind of information you will enjoy based on past interactions and user behavior.
But a second “psychological filter” is also at work, Sng added. His research focuses on the psychological and behavioral effects of media use.
“It’s a symbiotic relationship. Personal experiences can influence what we search for online, and when we encounter contradictory information, we can block it out.” What we encounter online can also influence our beliefs,” he said.
However, social media was not entirely at fault, Sng said, as there is an interaction between algorithms and users’ own existing biases.
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“Post-truth” society
Mustafa, of the Chasseur group, said there was an overemphasis on the online environment, which could lead young people to turn to far-right extremist beliefs.
“The role of socio-economic insecurity and disenfranchisement in far-right radicalization is known to be an important factor and should not be underestimated,” she said.
“Online platforms are not the primary driver of such radicalization, but merely act as conduits or echo chambers that can amplify or accelerate underlying insecurities.”
RSIS’s Singham said young people tend to be most susceptible to this view. “In some countries, people from somewhat marginalized backgrounds and, as evidenced by examples in Western countries, people with mental health problems may also be vulnerable.”
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“In a post-truth society, some people tend to create an alternate reality where they are welcome to fight alongside white supremacists because the common enemy is someone else,” she warned. . “We may think of them as delusional, but we cannot deny their capacity for violence.”
For Ethan, these right-wing extremist ideas are now a thing of the past.
“We eventually moved past this stage. I think some biases take time to dissipate and views evolve after new interactions,” he said.
“I realized I could do better with my time than getting caught up in problems happening far away.”
Additional reporting by Amy Sood
*Names have been changed at the request of the interviewee.