UNCC300 Essay: Social Media, Violent Extremism and Society

This essay delves into the critical relationship between social media and the rise of violent extremism, framed within the context of Catholic social teaching and the principle of human dignity. It highlights how social media platforms contribute to radicalization, mobilization, and the spread of extremist ideologies, posing a significant challenge to societies worldwide. The essay analyzes the negative impact of violent extremism on the security and fundamental rights of citizens. It emphasizes the need for a multifaceted approach to address the challenges, including enhancing states' capacity for prevention, promoting education and employment, empowering youth and women, and leveraging both online and offline platforms for counter-radicalization efforts. The essay also underscores the importance of global advocacy and the sensitization of citizens to cultural diversity to counter extremist rhetoric.

Running head: SOIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1SOCIOLOGY
Critique for the global issue
The context of social media has been long considered as one of the main or the primary
cause regrading the growth of the violent rate of extremism. As per the social teaching of the
Catholics, one of the condition is human dignity that identifies each of the person on equal basis
or as unique tends of individuals. The global issues that the assignment aims to focus is the rise
of the violent extremism in the current world as the gift of the social media. It posses as one of
the major challenge of social media.
Though social media has been one of the most essential necessities of human in the
current decade, it has led to several of the vulnerable individuals for resorting the violence. The
context of violent extremism has become one of the major challenge for several of the societies
and has become threatening for the security and for the fundamental rights of the citizens
through out the world. According to Hafez and Mullins (2015) the rise of the violent extremism
due to social media is affront towards the principles of the United Nations and has been
thoroughly embodied in the fundamental freedoms and the universal human rights that targets
the human dignity. The rising communication technologies and the platform of social media
plays a very essential role in the mobilization and the radicalization in the entire procedure of the
violent extremism. As per the research by Byron (1999) the extremists tends to utilize the
platform of social media for influencing the outcomes of terrorists . The rise of the violent
extremism thus took a toll due to the social media platform and furthermore fueled the terrorist
activities threatening the clauses of human dignity at a glance.

2SOCIOLOGY
Addressing of the challenges
This is to understand through out the world that it is not enough for the globe to counter
the rise of the violent extremism that has been rising due to the social media. It is essential to
prevent it. It is important to form some of the sift power for the prevention of the threat that is
driven by the distorted interpretations regarding the culture, the hatred and the impact of the
ignorance. Violent extremism is not born with, it is being developed, fueled and made (Pauwels,
Brion and De Ruyver, 2014). The process of the disarming of radicalization must ensure to begin
with the context of the human rights, the dialogue across all the boundary lines, the rule of law
and the by the empowering of all the youngsters in the benches of the educational institutions.
For addressing the challenges regrading the rise of the violent extremism and the
negative uses of the social media, some of the actions that are needed to be taken in both
the local and the global basis includes the enhancement of the capacity for the provision of
the assistance to the states since they craft the shaper strategies for the prevention of the
violent extremism. Some of the major areas that needs to focused for the addressing of the
issues targets the development of the skill (Berger, 2015). The purpose of education and the
facilitation of employment. This furthermore includes the opportunities and the chances of the
empowerment of the youth, the internet, the correct and restricted use of social media, the
strategic communication and more. Another factor that needs to be highlighted is the
empowering of women and the practice of the gender equality.
It is important to broaden the focus over countering the violent extremism beyond the
ideology, the religion and the motivation and also embed the respective efforts towards the
prevention of violence in a more general way (Awan, 2017). In the context of the local and the

3SOCIOLOGY
community perspectives, in case if programming for the countering violent terrorism
determines the context of vulnerability in the terms of the ethnicity, racial background,
ideology and natural origin then the communities that are suspected are being identified as
the pre-criminal ones.
The local community needs to empower youngsters to live up towards their potential being
the positive change actors through the means of the unique cross sectional work over some
of the following domains. These includes the essential education as the most important tool for
the prevention of the violent rate of extremism.
In the global perspectives, it is essential for UNESCO to help the countries to deliver the
educational programme that would help in building the learner’s resilience towards the
violent extremism and furthermore mitigate the drivers regrading the phenomenon
(Preventing Violent Extremism, 2019). It is essential to seek strength of the capacities of the
national system of education that includes the educational contents, teachers and policies (Patton
et al., 2014). The context of the global advocacy, development of the guidance and the capacity
towards the reinforcements.
Apart from the local, global and the community perspectives, in the context of the
psychological sciences, the youth participation and empowerment are some of the major
factors that needs to be taken care of. The collaboration among the social, human services and
education together with communication and the culture will ensure the provision of the skills and
the multifaceted trainings for the engagement of the global citizens towards addressing the main
causes of the rise of the extremism (Guitián, 2015). Apart from all these, leveraging the global
reach and the diverse network patterns, the mobilization of the policy makers, the actors of the

4SOCIOLOGY
media will be effective both in online and offline platform for responses and prevention of
radicalization and violent rate of extremism. Finally one of the most essential factor that needs to
be highlighted is the sensitization of the global citizen regrading the value of the diversity and
the cultural heritages through the social and the traditional media for deconstructing of the
violent and rhetoric extremism.

5SOCIOLOGY
References
Awan, I. (2017). Cyber-extremism: Isis and the power of social media. Society, 54(2), 138-149.
Berger, J. M. (2015). The metronome of apocalyptic time: Social media as carrier wave for
millenarian contagion. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(4), 61-71.
Byron, W. J. (1999). Framing the principles of Catholic social thought. Catholic Education: A
Journal of Inquiry and Practice, 3(1).
Guitián, G. (2015). Service as a bridge between ethical principles and business practice: A
Catholic social teaching perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), 59-72.
Hafez, M., & Mullins, C. (2015). The radicalization puzzle: A theoretical synthesis of empirical
approaches to homegrown extremism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38(11), 958-975.
Patton, D. U., Hong, J. S., Ranney, M., Patel, S., Kelley, C., Eschmann, R., & Washington, T.
(2014). Social media as a vector for youth violence: A review of the
literature. Computers in Human Behavior, 35, 548-553.
Pauwels, L., Brion, F., & De Ruyver, B. (2014). Explaining and understanding the role of
exposure to new social media on violent extremism. An integrative quantitative and
qualitative approach (RADIMED): summary.
Preventing Violent Extremism. (2019). Retrieved 21 July 2019, from
https://en.unesco.org/preventing-violent-extremism