News Mention: Young Men and Far-Right Radicalisation

“Executive director of think tank Tech Against Terrorism Adam Hadley, warned of how easy it is now for young men to find themselves engaging with far-right extremist content.

Speaking about how vulnerable people are being 'groomed' into terrorist groups through social media and messaging platforms, Mr Hadley said:

'A lot of the extreme far right are pumping content online because they want to recruit people. People talk about grooming where sexual abuse is concerned, but often with the extreme far right, they're grooming people to become violent.'

According to Mr Hadley, whose team scour social media to detect extremist content to report, Telegram is the far-right's messaging platform of choice.

He said:

'Where the extreme, violent far right is concerned, they tend to use quite a small number of messaging apps, and historically, Telegram. Telegram has been a very big part of how they operate and how they share things. But it's not just that. They might use YouTube, they might use they might use WhatsApp.'"

The Daily Mail, 16 February 2025