- the denial of Nazi war crimes form an important part of ideology and culture (for example, revisionist accounts of the Second World War, such as David Irving's Hitler's War).
146. The Home Office acknowledges, however, that whilst they are developing their understanding of the material online they do not at present have a granular understanding of the volume of this material or indeed which categories are the most widely accessed:
I have to be frank, I am not confident that even a year from now we will be able to because the material moves quite quickly, the platforms on which people operate move quite quickly, and so our ability to keep track of this is quite difficult.[1]
The XRW space was described as particularly challenging because:
So much of this material is rather more subtle, dog-whistle material, use of sarcasm, use of images which are not immediately obvious to individuals who are not within this milieu . . . this is a much more sophisticated set of propaganda than we have experienced in the past. That is not to say that ISIL and AQ propaganda is not highly sophisticated; it is, but it is much more conventional than the material that sits here.[2]
Platforms hosting ERWT material
147. JTAC assesses that these categories of material can be found on a variety of platforms and at different levels of encryption.[3] These five types of platforms are addressed below, but the headlines are:
- XRW terrorists and extremists use an array of SMAS (i.e. encrypted apps) to communicate with like-minded individuals. It is highly likely that their reliance on SMAs will increase.
- Some SMAS ***.[4]
- Propaganda and rhetoric posted on both mainstream and ERWT-specific social networking sites/fora could inspire a Self-Initiated Terrorist to commit a terrorist attack.
- Some ERWT-focused sites provide safe havens for violent, extremist rhetoric, which can further radicalise individuals and present networking opportunities for Extreme Right-Wing Terrorists.
- With a large proportion of UK ERWT members being young and computer literate, it is highly likely that a growing number of the community have at least rudimentary knowledge of the benefits of VPNs and there is an awareness in some ERWT circles of the potential use of the 'dark web'.
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