Are extremists exploiting the pandemic?

Social Media Photo: Bigstock

SALEEM SAMAD

Conspiracy theories and disinformation are spreading at an alarming rate

When Sara Khan, lead commissioner for an independent Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE) in a flagship report “Challenging Hateful Extremism” talked of how effective existing British laws are in dealing with hateful extremist activity -- policy-makers and government officials in Britain were dumbfounded.

The report, launched on June 10, observes that the far right to the far left and Islamist groups have fully exploited the global coronavirus crisis to promote dangerous conspiracy theories and disinformation, mostly online.

A private study has been posted by the United Kingdom government’s official website, which says CCE advises the government on new policies to deal with extremism, including the need for any new powers.

The non-governmental organization, CCE, supports society to fight all forms of extremism and has closely worked with the British Police Department.

The extremists joined in separate social media space, joined by #CovIdiots across all spectrums. From far right and far left, all are agog in 5G conspiracy theories on platforms such as Telegram, a multi-platform messaging service platform.

Conspiracy theories need just the right ingredients to take off within a population, and the Covid-19 pandemic has been a breeding ground for them.

The independent commission has pulled together several other pieces of research to draw a broader canvas of the extremist threat during the pandemic. A narrative spread like wildfire on social media that the wireless network 5G technology fuelled the coronavirus pandemic.

The conspiracy theory on the Covid-19 outbreak believes that the virus pandemic is part of a strategy conceived by global elites - such as Bill Gates - to roll-out coronavirus vaccines with tracking chips that would later be activated by 5G, the technology used by mobile technology networks.

Such mindless #CovIdiots in Bangladesh are equally active in social media. They are active in posting conspiracy theories in attempts to inject into the novice minds of young and old, rich and poor that coronavirus is a Western conspiracy by Christians and Jews responsible for funding research in Wuhan labs.

Well, wearing masks, using sanitizers, washing hands, and testing for coronavirus are selling points of multinational companies and their accomplices in the country.

What about those millions who are infected, hospitalized, and dying from coronavirus? The #CovIdiots mysteriously remain silent and dish out stereotypical responses to such pressing issues.

The study further emphasized that hateful extremists have used divisive, xenophobic, and racist narratives to sow division and undermine the social fabric of Britain.

Unless the British government urgently invests in counter-extremism measures, extremists will seek to capitalize on the socio-economic impacts of Covid-19 to cause further long-term instability, fear, and division in Britain.

For a democratic government, in the United Kingdom, the impact of extremist propaganda and disinformation shouldn’t be undermined. These conspiracy theories are harmful, dangerous, and are used by extremists to cause division and breed hate, reiterated Sara Khan.

Now a social media strategy needs to be developed to challenge dangerous conspiracy theories based on the harm they cause. This will enable practitioners on social media platforms to better challenge harmful conspiracy theories before they escalate.

Bangladesh shouldn’t miss the opportunity to join the global effort to classify dangerous conspiracy theories. 

A fresh counter-extremism strategy must include an assessment of how extremism manifests locally, the harm it causes, the scale of support for extremist narratives, and how best to pre-empt extremist activity.

The assessment should also include the people most vulnerable to extremist narratives, to deliver vital interventions to engage and support these guiltless people. 

First published in the Dhaka Tribune, 13 July 2020

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist, media rights defender, and recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He can be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com. Twitter @saleemsamad

This dystopia Lockdown is stranger than fiction

SALEEM SAMAD

The current lockdown is a scenario straight out of movies and paperback thrillers.

When Peter May’s manuscript was pitched -- with a bizarre scenario of a global pandemic -- it was refused by several publishers for being too unrealistic. Now it is scheduled to hit the bookstore on April 30.

The dystopian novel has turned into reality. His current publisher Quercus Books hopes that familiarity with a pandemic will appeal to a wide audience.

Well, the novel did not mention Wuhan in China. Instead, he chose London as an epicentre of a global pandemic that forced authorities to compel a lockdown to save lives.

Obviously, the novelist abandoned the project and eventually forgot that he had written it, until a fan contacted him on Twitter suggesting he should write something for the age of the coronavirus, refreshing his memory and prompting him to retrieve the file from a Dropbox folder.

When he read the manuscript for the first time since he wrote the book 15 years ago, he was shocked at how accurate it was.

The story, in brief, says London city is in lockdown. Violence and civil disorder simmer and authorities have no alternative but to declare martial law. No one is safe from the deadly virus. The British prime minister himself is dead. Health and emergency services are overwhelmed. 

Armed vigilantes block a neighbour’s driveway with a tree to force them into home quarantine.

However, the story was not based on the imagination of the Scottish screenwriter and novelist. He had painstakingly browsed hundreds of pages of British and the United States pandemic preparedness documents from 2002 to make it as realistic as possible.

The much talked about book Lockdown was finally published 15 years later; that’s our reality due to coronavirus, which has so far infected more than 1 million people globally.

Available in paperback, the 416- page crime thriller titled Lockdown predicted in 2005 a world in quarantine, which has finally seen the light of the day.

The current coronavirus pandemic has severely squeezed the value chain of the book distributors to reach the bookstores globally. However, the publication is only available through Amazon UK on Kindle format ($4.99) for now. It also will be available in paperback ($13.58) and audio-book from April 30.

The 69-year-old Peter May was born and raised in Scotland, United Kingdom. He was an award-winning journalist at the age of 21 and a published novelist at 26. When his first book was adapted as a major drama series for the BBC, he quit journalism and became one of Scotland’s most successful television dramatists.

He created three prime-time drama series, presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland as script editor and producer, and worked on more than 1,000 episodes of ratings-topping drama before deciding to leave television to return to his first love, writing novels. He has won several literature awards.

“At the time I wrote the book, scientists were predicting that bird flu was going to be the next major world pandemic,” May told the American TV channel CNN.

“The everyday details of how you get through life, the way the lockdown works, people being forbidden to leave their homes. It’s all scarily accurate,” he quipped.

Well, the invisible enemies of bird flu and coronavirus are very different, but the lockdown scenario hits close to home for millions of people currently self-isolating to prevent the virus from spreading.

First published in the Dhaka Tribune on 13 April 2020

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist, media rights defender, recipient of Ashoka Fellow (USA) and Hellman-Hammett Award. Twitter: @saleemsamad. Reach him at saleemsamad@hotmail.com