The impact of recent events
47. More generally, MI5 noted that external events have had an impact on individuals' engagement with ERWT. MI5 explained:
The period immediately following MI5's adoption of full primacy in April 2020 was characterised by two phenomena which could have inflamed tensions amongst RWT SOI and led to increased violence: Firstly, COVID-19 (and linked conspiracy theories) constrained liberties and increased state interference in people's lives. Secondly, the death of George Floyd and the consequent focus on diversity and inclusion in public life (in particular the "Black Lives Matter" movement and public protests) also brought to prominence an agenda inimical to the mindset of many of our SOI.[1]
48. ***, although there were associated concerns regarding ERWT:
We are mindful however that increased online activity during the period of lockdown provided individuals with increased opportunities to engage with online extremist material and with individuals online. There is a realistic possibility that this will have reinforced and further developed the extremist beliefs of some individuals, including those engaging with RWE.[2]
49. In terms of Covid-19, as the virus spread across the globe in early 2020, a range of conspiracy theories and disinformation spread rapidly across the internet via mainstream and social media platforms—many of them linked to the XRW and the Far Right. A joint study by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and the BBC on Far-Right Exploitation of Covid-19, undertaken between January and April 2020, revealed that there had been:
hundreds of thousands of far right posts around COVID-19 and millions of engagements with known disinformation sites with a marked increase in conversations within far right circles about so-called 'elites' including Bill Gates, George Soros, the Rothschilds and Jeff Bezos and false information about their role in the creation or spread of the virus. The conversations monitored by ISD researchers referenced the virus as a tool of social control, a purposeful plot to kill off certain populations, or a means to make money for those individuals and their institutions.[3]
As Jacob Davey of the ISD told the Committee, the pandemic was seen as an opportunity by some of the most extreme groups and individuals, with evidence of some "suggesting that they could even use COVID as a bioweapon against minority communities".[4]
50. A report published by the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee also found that ERWT groups and individuals sought to co-opt the pandemic, using some of these conspiracy theories to attempt to radicalise, recruit and inspire plots and attacks:
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