"One that doesn't announce itself with weather alerts or sirens. It targets our children in their digital third spaces - Discord servers where they chat with friends, Instagram feeds where they scroll for hours, Reddit forums where they seek community, gaming platforms where they unwind, and the sprawling ecosystem of social media where teenagers spend most of their waking hours."
"The State Department issued a call for proposals in July 2025 to fund programs preventing terrorists from recruiting young people online. One month later, they canceled the entire initiative due to funding cuts. The very expertise needed to design and manage such responses had been dismantled when my office - the Office of Countering Violent Extremism - was shuttered along with similar prevention teams across the federal government."
Extremist groups across ideological spectra exploit social media, gaming platforms, Discord, Instagram, and Reddit as recruitment centers targeting teenagers. Teens accounted for a large share of 2024 ISIS-linked arrests in Europe, with children as young as 11 implicated in plots. White supremacists, neo-Nazi groups, and far-right movements employ similar tactics, focusing on vulnerable youth. Federal prevention capacity has been reduced, with the Office of Countering Violent Extremism closed and related teams disbanded. A State Department funding initiative for youth-focused prevention was canceled due to cuts. The loss of expertise and programs worsens risks to young people online.
Read at The Cipher Brief
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