Emerging technologies such as conversational AI, deepfakes and the metaverse could be radicalized by terrorists and extremists and used to recruit converts to their cause, Europol warned.
The police organization issued a warning in its report. EU Terrorism Situation and Trends (TE-SAT) Report 2023 Published today.
“Emerging online media such as the Metaverse can be used to spread propaganda, recruit talent, and coordinate the activities of terrorists and violent extremists,” said the report.
“We may see similar developments as open-source decentralized platforms become more popular among terrorists and violent extremists.”
For more information on the threat of technology-assisted terrorism, see 3 ways the US thwarts cyber-assisted terrorism.
Given its early stages of development, the threat of the Metaverse is still imminent, but decentralized P2P apps used for propaganda are already causing problems for law enforcement, as they are difficult to monitor and investigate, Euro said. Paul insisted.
The online environment lowers the barriers to entry into the world of terrorism and extremism, broadens the range of people potentially exposed to radicalization, and increases the unpredictability of terrorism and extremism, the report added.
Europol also noted that deepfakes, augmented reality and conversational AI could be used to increase the effectiveness of terrorist propaganda. Both these technologies and IoT tools can also be deployed for “more realistic tasks, such as remotely controlling vehicles and weapons used in attacks and setting up virtual training camps.”
While these emerging technologies have received a lot of attention, current tools already being exploited by terrorists and extremist groups are end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging platforms, It’s a game adjacency platform.
Both Islamist terrorist groups like IS and right-wing extremists have exploited the latter, creating groups on gaming communication apps and “extremist utopias within popular video games” to appeal to young recruits.
Digital currencies also play a role in helping fund such groups while maintaining the anonymity of funders, Europol said.
Last year, 28 attacks were recorded in the EU that were completed, failed, or failed, and four people were killed.
