Jared Cohen - The New Digital Age

At Google Ideas, we’ve studied radicalization around the world, particularly with an eye toward the role that communication technologies can play. 4It turns out that the radicalization process for terrorists is not very different from what we see with inner-city gangs or other violent groups, like white supremacists. At our Summit Against Violent Extremism in June 2011, we brought together more than eighty former extremists to discuss why individuals join violent organizations, and why they leave them. Through open dialogue with the participants, who, between them, represented religious extremists, violent nationalists, urban gangs, far-right fascists and jihadist organizations, we learned that similar motivations exist across all these groups, and that religion and ideology play less of a role than most people think. The reasons people join extremist groups are complex, often having to do more with the absence of a support network, the desire to belong to a group, to rebel, to seek protection or to chase danger and adventure.

There are far too many young people who share these sentiments. What’s new is that large numbers of them will air their grievances online in ways that advertently or inadvertently advertise themselves to terrorist recruiters. What radicalized youth seek through virtual connections grows out of their experience in the physical world—abandonment, rejection, isolation, loneliness and abuse. We can figure out a great deal about them in the virtual world, but in the end, real de-radicalization requires group meetings and a lot of support, therapy and meaningful alternatives in the physical world.

Words and speeches against violent extremism will not be enough in the battle for young hearts and minds. Military force will not do the job, either. Governments have been largely successful at capturing and killing existing terrorists but less effective at stemming the flow of recruits. As General Stanley McChrystal, the former U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, told Der Spiegel in 2010, “What defeats terrorism is really two things. It’s rule of law and then it’s opportunity for people. So if you have governance that allows you to have rule of law, you have an environment in which it is difficult to pursue terrorism. And if you have an opportunity for people in life, which includes education and the chance to have a job, then you take away the biggest cause of terrorism. So really, the way to defeat terrorism is not military strikes, it’s going after the basic conditions.”

McChrystal’s insight spotlights an opportunity for technology enthusiasts and companies alike, because what better way is there to improve a population’s quality of life than boosting its connectivity? The gains that communication technologies produce for communities—economic opportunity, entertainment, freedom of information, greater transparency and accountability—all contribute to the antiradicalization mission. Once a large segment of a population is online, it will be possible to mobilize the local virtual community to reject terrorism and demand accountability and action from its leaders. There will be more voices speaking out against extremism than for it, and while technology may extend the reach of fanatics, it will be impossible to preach one way of thinking without encountering some interference. All of the things that come with an active virtual sphere—more discussion, more points of view, more counternarratives—can introduce doubt and promote independent thinking among these young, malleable populations. Of course, all of this would fall on more receptive ears if connectivity led to job creation.

The most potent antiradicalization strategy will focus on the new virtual space, providing young people with content-rich alternatives and distractions that keep them from pursuing extremism as a last resort. This effort should be large and involve stakeholders from every background—the public sector, private companies, partnerships between local actors and activists abroad. Mobile technology, particularly, will play the dominant role in this campaign, since the majority of people coming online will do so through their handsets. Phones are personalized and powerful platforms, status symbols that their users rely on and value deeply. Reaching disaffected youth through their mobile phones is the best possible goal we can have.

Western companies and governments will not be the ones to develop the bulk of the new content. The best solutions will be hyper-local, designed and supported by people with intimate knowledge of the immediate environment. Building platforms that we merely hope alienated youth will like and use is the equivalent of dropping propaganda flyers from an airplane.

Outsiders don’t have to develop the content; they just need to create the space. Wire up the city, give people basic tools and they’ll do most of the work themselves. A number of technology companies have developed start-up kits for people to build applications on top of their platforms; Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine are two examples, and there will be many others. Creating space for others to build the businesses, games, platforms and organizations they envision is a brilliant corporate maneuver, because it ensures that a company’s products are used (boosting brand loyalty, too) while the users actually build and operate what they want. Somalis will build apps that are effective antiradicalization tools to reach other Somalis; Pakistanis will do the same for other Pakistanis. There will be more opportunities for local people to build small businesses and create outlets for youth at the same time. The key is to simply enable people to adapt products in ways that fit their needs and don’t require complex technological expertise.

Public-private partnerships with local activists and people of influence will drive this process. Companies should also look to partnering with local groups to develop content. Ideally, what emerges is a range of content, platforms and applications that speak to each community distinctly yet share technological or structural components enabling them to be mimicked in other places. If the causes of radicalization are similar everywhere, the remedies can be, too.

Technology companies are uniquely positioned to lead this effort internationally. Many of the most prominent ones have all the values of a democratic society with none of the baggage of being a government—they can go where governments can’t, speak to people off the diplomatic radar and operate in the neutral, universal language of technology. Moreover, this is the industry that produces video games, social networks and mobile phones—it has perhaps the best understanding of how to distract young people of any sector, and kids are the very demographic being recruited by terror groups. The companies may not understand the nuances of radicalization or the differences between specific populations in key theaters like Yemen, Iraq and Somalia, but they do understand young people and the toys they like to play with. Only when we have their attention can we hope to win their hearts and minds.

Moreover, due to technology companies’ involvement in security threats—their products are being used by terrorists—the public will eventually demand that they do more in the fight against extremism. This means not only improving their products and protecting users with strict policies regarding content and security, but also taking a public stand. Just as the capitulation of MasterCard and PayPal to political pressure in the WikiLeaks saga convinced many activists that the companies took sides, inaction on the part of technology companies will be considered indefensible to some. Fairly or otherwise, companies will be held responsible for destructive uses of their products. Companies will reveal their personalities and core values according to how they rise to meet these challenges. Empty words will not pacify an informed public.