BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

GLOBAL TRENDS OF ONLINE RADICALIZATION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: BANGLADESH’S EXPERIENCE AND ITS SECURITY IMPLICATIONS

Author: Ayesha Binte Towhid

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2021v42n4a4

ABSTRACT

Besides being a global health catastrophe, the Covid-19 pandemic has raised several more concerns, the alarming rise of online radicalization being one of those. Violent extremist groups across the world exploited the crisis in different manners to push forward their agenda. In most cases, these groups resorted to social media platforms and messaging services to radicalize, recruit, mobilize and instigate attacks. The violent extremist groups in Bangladesh have also engaged in similar acts. Against this backdrop, the paper aims to provide a broad overview of the global trends of online radicalization and a deeper insight into the issue in Bangladesh. The paper finds that globally, there are several observable patterns in the groups’ online narratives and overall radicalization process, regardless of their ideologies. In the case of Bangladesh, the online radicalization activities during the pandemic is a continuation of the process seen in the past few years, but the organizations capitalized on the crisis and constructed new narratives surrounding it. Compared to the global trend, there are thematic resemblances with many of the narratives and specific relevance with the contents of transitional faith-based violent extremist groups. Overall, it is perceived that exploitation of the pandemic and the pandemic-induced life condition in Bangladesh is likely to have both short and long-term security implications, some of which are already starting to surface.