Europol's co-ordinated action day against online far-right extremism involved 14 countries. Reuters
Europol's co-ordinated action day against online far-right extremism involved 14 countries. Reuters
Europol's co-ordinated action day against online far-right extremism involved 14 countries. Reuters
Europol's co-ordinated action day against online far-right extremism involved 14 countries. Reuters

Celebrations of far-right terrorist attacks found in online crackdown


Nicky Harley
  • English
  • Arabic

More than 800 pieces of far-right terror content has been found on 34 websites in a Europe-wide extremism crackdown.

Europe's crime agency Europol organised a co-ordinated action day, involving 14 countries, to tackle online far-right extremism.

The participating authorities were involved in detecting and flagging terrorist content to online service providers and evaluating their responses.

The activities resulted in the referral of 831 items to 34 affected platforms.

Referred material included content produced by or favouring proscribed right-wing extremist organisations.

It also included content related to terrorist attacks motivated by violent extremism, including livestreams, manifestos, claims and celebrations.

It was the second action day Europol has held to target far-right propaganda.

“Since the first referral action day targeting this type of online content in 2021, the threat posed by violent extremism and terrorism is still on the rise,” Europol said.

“The terror attacks in Buffalo, USA, and Bratislava, Slovakia, illustrated a concerning proliferation of violent right-wing extremist and terrorist activities on a global scale.

“The perpetrators of these attacks were part of transnational online communities and took inspiration from other violent right-wing extremists and terrorists.

“In their manifestos, terrorist actors have highlighted the pivotal role of online propaganda in the radicalisation process. This shows how the abuse of the internet continues to be an important aspect of violent right-wing radicalisation and recruitment.”

During the action day, online service providers were invited them to evaluate and remove the content breaching their terms of service.

It has advised the platforms to reinforce their moderation protocols to avoid extremist abuse in the future.

The day of action involved 14 countries, including Denmark, France, Germany, the UK and Spain.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

The winners

Fiction

  • ‘Amreekiya’  by Lena Mahmoud
  •  ‘As Good As True’ by Cheryl Reid

The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award

  • ‘Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in Sao Paulo’ by Oswaldo Truzzi;  translated by Ramon J Stern
  • ‘The Sound of Listening’ by Philip Metres

The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award

  • ‘Footnotes in the Order  of Disappearance’ by Fady Joudah

Children/Young Adult

  •  ‘I’ve Loved You Since Forever’ by Hoda Kotb 
6 UNDERGROUND

Director: Michael Bay

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Adria Arjona, Dave Franco

2.5 / 5 stars

Our legal consultant

Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Updated: June 20, 2023, 11:37 AM