The incident that shook Thessaloniki to its core a few days ago was a horrifying sight. In one of the city’s most visible locations, a group of angry young men visibly chased two LGBTQ+ people, throwing bottles and shouting abuse.
The episode becomes even darker when we focus on the bystanders surrounding the incident. The crowd stood almost paralyzed, doing nothing, only recording shocking scenes of violence and abuse on their cellphones.
But the bigger picture could be even more sinister. Slowly but surely, in obvious and more insidious ways, the internet seems to be bringing Greek youth closer to violence and extremism.
Digital communities and content predisposing young people to acts of violence is a modern global phenomenon that analysts have dubbed “online youth radicalization,” and authorities from Canada to India have recently Taking drastic action. This is to prevent that. A quick glance at the darkest parts of Greek TikTok is replete with snippets of teenagers bullying their classmates, committing acts of violence, and frequently using hate speech and other slurs, but this phenomenon is rearing its ugly head in Greece, as well as violence against the country’s youngest generation becoming the norm.
“Without a doubt, the internet today essentially functions as a breeding ground for violence,” Michalis Loris, a police officer and LGBTQI+ activist, told Kathimerini English. “Social media provides a platform where hate speech is normalized and legitimized in the collective subconscious, as it is constantly reproduced unfiltered,” Greece said. This police officer, who is also an active member of the Human Rights Police, explains: . “To make matters worse, platforms too often do not allow us to identify those who are spreading hate speech through posting, reposting, or commenting. “It normalizes racism, homophobia, hate speech, and abusive behavior, not just in public debates, but in the real world,” he added.
For Ms. Loris, there is little doubt that the toxic backlash against the marriage equality bill that has raged in various virtual spaces in recent months contributed to the formation of a violent mob in Thessaloniki. “When the church, political representatives and various other institutions essentially normalize hate speech and spread it, thanks to the internet, to society and Greek youth in general, dangerous reflexes are aroused and violence is quickly aroused. conduct and hate crimes,” he points out. “This goes hand-in-hand with recent incidents where elements of mob psychology behavior were seen. This is a well-documented phenomenon by criminology experts, where hate speech is filtered out. If not and replicated on a large scale, it is quickly and spontaneously and reflexively transformed into a hate crime, often involving mass mobilization.”
While the recent incidents in Thessaloniki may have come as a shock, Dora Kuntoula, a teacher who has worked at various high schools in the northeastern suburbs of Athens, says that in recent years there has been an increase in the overall incidence of violent behavior among teenagers. She feels the same way. This is due to the fact that “the lines between the physical and digital worlds are becoming blurred beyond recognition.”
“I can definitely say that more and more teenagers are becoming verbally and socially cruel to each other, especially since the end of the pandemic,” the teacher told Kathimerini English. “They frequently use strongly discriminatory and emotionally charged language, including slurs related to race, mental illness, neurodiversity, gender, and sexual orientation, to treat their peers with contempt. “This is not new, but it seems to have become the norm in schools, and worse, it tends to be completely accepted and normalized within teenage groups,” she added.
Based on conversations with students in the classroom, Kountoura said most teens don’t even realize that hate speech can cause tangible harm, because they don’t see it in action. The authors concluded that this is because people are accustomed to using this type of language extensively on the Internet. Who they might be talking to. “They feel that it is no longer taboo to treat others as if they were invisible, non-physical beings, just as they do on the Internet. In other words, they “They are not necessarily or intentionally cruel, but they end up acting with increased cruelty, and they become accustomed to a kind of performative cruelty,” she points out. .
Research around the world suggests that this type of behavioral cruelty cultivated online is more prevalent among teenage boys, which Kountoura said was more prevalent in Greek classrooms. This has been confirmed based on experience. “Today’s teenage boys are extensively exposed to multi-level violent content online, including through communities and online groups that promote Andrew Tate’s hate speech rhetoric,” she said. He was referring to the American-British social media personality, businessman, and former professional kickboxer whose comments have caused controversy. As a result, he was banned from various social media platforms, sparking concerns that he was promoting misogynistic views among young men. “Groups that combine fitness training, tutorials on how to conquer women, and covert alt-right brainwashing are extremely popular. Worse, teenage boys refuse to see the truth or are They often do not understand that they are being manipulated,” she concluded with concern. “For example, even when presented with evidence of criminal activity, they continue to believe that Andrew Tate is just a nice guy with the perfect advice on how to work out and woo women.”
Triantafilos Karatrantos, a senior researcher and expert on radicalization at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), said the recent outbreak of violence in Thessaloniki was a result of increasing sociopolitical polarization in the city. It points out that it is part of a broader extremist trend. The incident is linked to previous incidents, including violence and hooliganism at a school outside Stavrupol three years ago. “There is a clear trend toward younger radicalization, which is related to sociopolitical awareness,” he points out. “Essentially, more and more young people are reacting violently to social trends and political choices, and are expressing their reactions through violence. Some may be motivated by sociopolitical reasons; “While some may be motivated simply by exposure to a culture of violence, there is no doubt that young people’s involvement in violent acts is increasing,” he emphasizes.
Researchers believe there are many reasons that could lead young Greeks to commit acts of violence, but they also agree that the biggest challenge of our time is radicalization through the internet.
“The new generation is heavily dependent on mobile phones and has created a different language based on their interactions on social media and communication platforms. This is related to iconography, which is a structural element of radicalization. “That is, how violence is transferred to online communication as a form of projection,” he explains. “Violent young people publish their violence online, hoping not only to humiliate their victims, but also to gain reinforcement by disseminating their images,” he added, adding that in Greece’s ten He mentioned the phenomenon of teenagers posting videos on social media showing off their violent acts. For the purpose of gaining likes, comments, and attention online.
Additional digital pathways to violence include communicating through encrypted messaging platforms and the dark web, and constant exposure to a culture of violence and violent speech, Karatrantos said. “Until now, for people to come into contact with extremist content of any kind, they had to go to a physical location,” he says. “Today, a teenager has access to vast amounts of extremist and violent content from the comfort of his own home.”
Karatrantos is concerned that advances in technology such as artificial intelligence and deepfakes could pose further challenges when it comes to radicalizing young people online, but there are solutions, if not easy. I believe it is possible. “The problem is that public discussion and concern about youth violence often occurs after the violence has occurred,” he says. “We need to be proactive, and we need technology as an ally in dismantling the concept of violence and its appeal.”
There are many reasons for extreme concern when looking at how the internet is normalizing violence against young people in Greece, but they are not all cause for panic. In fact, some argue that the Internet may be responsible for another, more positive phenomenon. It’s about bringing national attention to a case that was previously local and obscure.
“We don’t necessarily know whether there is more youth violence today, but I think we will learn about it much sooner,” said Loris, drawing on his years of experience as a member of the Greek police. Masu. “We live in the information age, so incidents of violence that would have remained within the local community among young people in a small town can now reach a national audience. “The second aspect is that as Greek society developed, public awareness increased and the necessary attention was paid to discriminatory violence,” he concluded. “In the past, many of the attacks against individuals belonging to minority groups, such as women, LGBTQI+, and immigrants, were internalized and sometimes even the victims themselves remained silent. Today, they are given attention and attention. This is a step in the right direction.”
