What is it about?
The government of Aotearoa (aka, New Zealand) is developing counter-terrorism legislation. However, the legislation and how members of the government speak about it and its goals highlight problems that are going to undermine its goals. This article highlights those problems, such as a fundamental lack of awareness about the role of social media and online communities in driving extremism, and speaks to ways of mitigating those problems.
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Why is it important?
The risks posed by extremist communities is rising around the world, and Aotearoa has recently experienced a terrorist attack driven by white-supremacy and Islamophobia. This law is an attempt to make the country and its communities safer in future. However, there are holes in the ways it thinks about the threats we face, and if they aren't addressed that will limit how useful the law will be for making vulnerable people safer.
Perspectives
Due to covid, there was a significant lag between the development of this article and its publication, and as a result the local political landscape has shifted from when it was written. The minister primarily leading the development of the law has left parliament, and there are other factors that have changed its context. The landscape of the "Christchurch Call to Action" summit also changed, with the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk and him firing all of the staff working to make Twitter part of a safer and more responsible online ecosystem. However, I still believe the article highlights consistent areas that the current government is blind to regarding the ways that social media platforms *actively increase the size of extremist groups because doing so makes them money.* Also, there are no 'lone wolf' attackers: those who are given that label are instead just the most-visible expression of much larger online extremist communities. These issues and others discussed in the article have to be factored into the response to extremism, or they simply won't do a good job.
Dr Kevin Veale
Massey University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: SALVAGING FLAWED DISCOURSES SURROUNDING NZ’S ‘COUNTER-TERRORISM LEGISLATION BILL’, Sites a journal of social anthropology and cultural studies, August 2022, University of Otago Library,
DOI: 10.11157/sites-id496.
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