R3 A3: Weeding out right-wing extremism

Violent extremism and terrorism pose a threat to the safety of all Europeans and
the fabric of our societies. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the UN
and EU created lists of persons and groups associated with terrorist acts, who
would then be targeted with restrictive measures to limit their ability to
inflict harm. The EU expanded upon this in Common Position 2001/931/CFSP (CP
931) which defines terrorist acts and the measures that can be taken against
them. In 2016, after various attacks instigated by the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (Daesh), the EU expanded its sanctioning capacities for persons connected
to Al-Qaida or Daesh. Now the EU could sanction persons and groups without
requiring a prior listing by the UN or an EU member state. The current strategy
appears to be relatively successful in combating terrorism and extremist
violence motivated by Islamism. Sadly, every time the EU has acted after the
fact, in 2001 as well as in 2016, even though the broader threat had been there
for a longer time.

While Islamist violence remains the largest terrorist threat in Europe, right-
wing violent extremism and terrorism is growing rapidly. Right-wing extremist
violence stems from a reactionary ideology that blames social minorities and
progressive politics for societal problems. The prevalence of hate against
specific groups inevitably leads to violence being committed against them. The
increase of right-wing violence in North-America, Oceania and Europe is a result
of online hate speech and the mainstreaming of reactionary politics. Beyond
violence directed at specific minorities, reactionaries also direct violence
against basic democratic principles such as freedom of speech, fair elections
and a free press. As global as the threat may be, countries are often left to
their own devices to combat right-wing violent extremism. The national focus of
right-wing extremists, belies their ability to form strong transnational bonds.
Within Europe there exist financial and strategic linkages between similar
right-wing extremist groups that enable them to further spread their message,
radicalize new recruits and orchestrate deadly terrorist attacks. Therefore even
a supposed lone actor still relies on a broad network spreading propaganda and
encouraging violent action.

The terrorist attacks of Christchurch spurred an international reaction to
combat and remove violent extremist and terrorist content from online fora.
While these efforts were fruitful in removing the most heinous of content,
internet companies still do far too little to combat harmful content on their
platform. European states should further instrumentalize their collective
leverage to diminish the radicalization potential of online media. These online
platforms also provide an avenue for outside influencing, like Russian hybrid
warfare, and the spread of violent conspiracy theories, like Q-Anon.

As of now the EU has not listed a single person, group or entity of a right-wing
signature based on CP 931. There has not been a Union-wide effort to combat and
prevent violent right-wing extremism through restrictive measures such as
freezing assets. A broad approach, including close cooperation between law
enforcement in various European countries is necessary to combat this threat. In
order to effectively combat online radicalization, popular internet platforms
should closely moderate their platforms to avoid hate speech turning into
violence. Additionally, European law enforcement has to be knowledgeable on combating the far-right in their own deep web spaces with funding and training to more than just small groups of specialists.

Concretely we:

• Urge the EU to list violent right-wing extremist persons, groups and
  entities on the basis of CP 931, allowing the EU to freeze assets and
  limit travel by the listed extremists. Another possible course of action
  is targeting these right-wing extremists for money laundering.

• Advise to disrupt right-wing recruitment on online platforms, a strategy
  that was successfully implemented for Daesh and other Islamist extremist
  groups.

• Encourage a broader information exchange and investigative cooperation
  between European law enforcement.