Extremists taking advantage of global COVID-19 lockdowns to recruit youths online: UN chief Antonio Guterres
Geneva/IBNS: UN chief Antonio Guterres alerted the world that extremist groups are taking advantage of the COVID-19 lockdowns and have intensified their efforts to recruit youths online by exploiting their anger and despair through social media.
"It is all too easy for extremist groups to exploit the anger and despair, and the risk of radicalization climbs," the UN chief said in a statement.
"We can already see such groups taking advantage of the COVID-19 lockdowns, intensifying their efforts on social media to spread hatred and to recruit young people who may be spending more time at home and on line," he said.
He said: "Yet, despite these hurdles and despite these risks, young people are still finding ways to engage, support each other, and to demand and drive change. We see it in our battle against COVID-19."
He said the world cannot afford a lost generation of youth.
"The world cannot afford a lost generation of youth, their lives set back by COVID-19 and their voices stifled by a lack of participation," he said.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
