British Government Wants to Bolster Moderate Islam in Search Results

The British government plans to teach pro-Western, moderate Islamic groups how to bolster their rank in search engine results in an effort to drown out extremist voices online and reduce online radicalization, reports The Register.

The Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), a 200-strong Home Office unit created 18 months ago, has said in meetings it wants to "flood the internet" with "positive" interpretations of Islam. It plans to train government-approved groups in search engine optimization techniques (SEO), which it's hoped will boost their profile online and battle radicalisation.

The effort, according to The Register, is part of the British government's anti-radicalization strategy to prevent Muslims from embracing more radical forms of Islam that could end in jihadist terror. Almost four years ago, four homegrown jihadists perpetuated a string of suicide bombings against London's transportation system. The attacks killed 52 people during their morning commute.

Over the past few years, government officials and terrorism experts have feared online radicalization, whereby an individual adopts more and more extreme views by saturating themselves in terrorist propaganda from Web sites and chatrooms. Critics now believe online radicalization is only part of a very complex process, and not a very important one at that.

A report released recently by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence took direct aim at the notion that online radicalization is a scourge demanding serious government attention.

"The Internet can play a role in radicalization, but that so far it has not been the principal driver of the process," the report says.

The report also directly counters the idea SEO will reduce traffic to extremists Web sites enough to justify a program like the British government's.

"Extremist websites are not normally found via web searches on sites like Google, but because people are told about them in web forums, at schools, universities or community centres."

The report says that only the "most callow wannabe terrorist" would search for truly extremist views through search engines such as Google.