Nordic Safe Cities in the spotlight

There are reasons to be concerned as extremist groups are leveraging their online activity during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. This week Nordic Safe Cities gathered 18 member cities to discuss how Covid-19 might accelerate radicalization through misinformation and hate propaganda. Within this context, there are particularly three trends that are particularly worrisome at the moment.

Firstly, extremist groups tend to be more active during crises, by spreading misinformation that seek to delegitimize authorities’ ability to handle the crisis and fuel frustration over the current situation. During Nordic Safe Cities’ Online City Meeting last week, several cities reported on such incidences, as extremist groups have been witnessed spreading disinformation on social media to cause polarization and hate towards certain minority groups as spreaders of the coronavirus.

Secondly, we know that people, and particularly youths, are currently spending more time online – and more time alone – due to the current societal shut down. Consequently, they might be particularly exposed to such propaganda.

Thirdly, as the social instances that normally help prevent and monitor radicalization temporarily are locked down, the cities raised concerns about retaining contact with vulnerable youths. This requires authorities to be particularly observant to deviant behavior amongst vulnerable individuals, as the Nordic societies are gradually opening up.

Nordic Safe Cities continues its work in meeting these challenges, by sharing experiences, expertise and practice across the Nordic cities. On this theme, Nordic Safe Cities’ director Jeppe Albers emerged on national TV this weekend, explaining how the corona crisis provides opportunity for radicalization. See the interview here or listen to his segment on National radio this morning, where he talked about how youths can act together to prevent friends from being dragged into radical environments online. Listen here (01:32:38).