MONTREAL — It’s one of a kind in North America — a university-based laboratory that looks at how fundamentalists are using social media and investigates ways to combat them — and it’s in Montreal.
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“What we’ve been noticing is that social media can be used for positive things and bring about social change… but we’ve also started seeing a much darker side, where it’s being used as a weapon of war,” said Kyle Matthews, the senior deputy director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University and founder of the Digital Mass Atrocity Prevention (DMAP) Lab.
“In all major conflicts, there’s always an information war and the internet has become a main battleground.”
He and his team have established the lab to investigate how to stop fundamentalists from using social media to incite violence and radicalize Canadians.
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“We want to make Montreal a centre for combating people who are using technology and social media for evil purposes,” Matthews said.
One of the aims is to mobilize a large network of citizens around the world to counter how ISIS members are using highly sophisticated methods, openly communicating on social media, spreading propaganda and reaching out to potential recruits.
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“The problem is that governments are like large boats and it takes them time to deal with these issues,” Matthews noted.
“We need people in civil society to help the government to help deal with this rising problem.”
ISIS is everybody’s responsibility
Matthews and his team are asking the general public to help to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) online with a crowdfunding initiative that’s asking for funding to send the DMAP Lab team to meet international experts this June at a conference in Germany.
“Why can’t we mobilize a large network of citizens around the world to counter ISIS?”
The goal of attending the conference would be to develop tools and strategies to counter extremists who use social media as a weapon of war and to reduce the chance of people being radicalized online.
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“We’re seeing how social media is being used and it’s affecting human rights abroad and in Canada.”
“We’re not academics sitting in a bubble, we’re doing this because we feel there is a need for it in society,” said Matthews.
“We don’t have all the answers, we also want people to give us answers.”
To find out more about the project, visit the Indigogo crowdfunding page here.
What about free speech?
Matthews said there is a distinction between curbing free speech and stopping people from inciting others to commit violence or promoting discrimination based on gender, sexual inclination or religious beliefs.
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“I think the reason why the Charlie Hebdo attacks brought about this call for free speech was because these people were murdered. Assassinated. Silenced,” he said.
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He noted that last fall, the EU recognized there was a serious problem and contacted major companies like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to find out what these social media companies could do about people who are using social media for criminal activity.
“Someone with a smart phone and internet access can publish their own thoughts and they can bypass media attention,” said Matthews.
“This has to be countered.”
What about Imam Hamza Chaoui?
After Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre and Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve Mayor Réal Ménard said they would not allow Hamza Chaoui to open the Ashabeb Centre, the controversial Imam took to Facebook Monday to respond to allegations he posed a danger to society.
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“I categorically refute the allegations of Mayors Ménard and Coderre,” he wrote.
“I’m not an ‘agent of radicalization.’ I’ve never incited hatred or violence against a group in my preaching or in my classes.”
He also said that he encourages young people to integrate harmoniously into Quebec society.
Nevertheless, Matthews’ response to Chaoui opening a community centre in Montreal was clear:
“Our standards, our curriculum, our laws, would never allow a teacher to start an educational centre with these views. He’s allowed to say what he wants, but he shouldn’t be allowed to set up an institution to promote that on a wider level.”
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“This extremism that we’re seeing, if it’s allowed to be propagated, if we allow it to be taught, to grow in our society, in the future there will be problems with social cohesion,” he added.
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