This post is adapted from a speech delivered at the DLD 'Next Next' Conference in Munich on 17th January 2016.
We are gathered here to talk about the future and we in the technology industry are hard-wired to believe that new ideas and technologies to change the world for the better. But today there are some dark clouds on the horizon -- challenges and threats to our worldview and way of life that demand a strong response.
Here in Munich on New Year's Eve authorities stopped celebrations and closed down the central railway station in response to intelligence that terrorists were planning to detonate suicide bombs in passenger terminals. In Brussels, police arrested suspects allegedly planning attacks leading to the cancellation of all public celebrations. And Paris -- still under a state of emergency since the terror attacks on the 13th of November -- scaled back celebrations and deployed 11,000 troops to protect revellers on the streets.
And at home in the UK, another grotesque propaganda video appeared online depicting the execution of five innocent men, while the masked murderer speaking with a British accent made threats against the UK with a four year old boy by his side.
With more deadly attacks this past week in Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Cameroon, Istanbul and Jakarta, 2016 has had an ominous start indeed -- But there's nothing inevitable about what happens next. There are things that we can do. The future is there to be shaped. And it's in the hands of every one of us.
What links all these events together is the threat from terrorist and extremist groups like Daesh or the so-called Islamic State. That threat is both physical and psychological. On the one hand, Daesh presents a very real physical danger to the safety of our citizens. But terrorism isn't only about the threat to life. Terrorists aim to undermine our very way of life.
So in the physical world we respond, as we must. Governments act. The police and security services do their work to uncover plots, marginalise the forces of extremism in communities and to keep people safe from harm. We have seen similar threats and faced them down before. In fact, seven potentially deadly attacks were stopped in the UK in the last year alone.
But there is a new dynamic to the threat in this digital age that demands a new response. In free and democratic societies, even the worst bigots are entitled to their opinions. But today, the Internet gives them a platform to take their hateful messages and violent provocations to millions and -- often -- to do so anonymously, without fear of reprisal.
The very idea of the Internet -- that great force for good designed to bring people together and to advance understanding -- is being undermined by them. It's becoming an echo chamber of hate, fear mongering and intolerance. And groups like Daesh are masters of their craft.
They have been quick to understand the power of the Web and to recognise its ability to give them reach and impact that was previously impossible. They exploit its scale to reach directly into the lives and minds of millions of people in their communities and the privacy of their homes.
While air strikes are degrading their positions in Iraq and Syria, Daesh are fighting a second war for the hearts and minds of the next generation, spreading a warped world-view. They understand their audience, their grievances and how to exploit them and typically prey on the young, marginalised and vulnerable. Often still in school some are persuaded to leave their families to pursue an apocalyptic dream or to take action that threatens safety and security at home.
The generation most at risk are the first generation to grow up more technologically literate than their parents and teachers, who live their lives almost constantly connected to digital devices. This leaves them open and susceptible to influences online where they are not monitored or supervised. Open to opinions in an uncontested space.
The perpetrators of this online counter-insurgency are often from the same peer group - digital natives, social media experts and coders attracted by the group's perverted ideology. They understand the language of propaganda -- and impressionable youths are their target consumer. Their narrative is powerful, straightforward and simple: you are one of us, irrespective of where you come from. Join us and claim your place in history.
Producing Hollywood style recruitment films that glorify violence and use game quality CGI to add excitement and interest -- their propaganda romanticises a life