By Karishma Vaswani

A DANGEROUS TREND is emerging in chatrooms and digital communities across Asia. Young people — mainly men and boys — are being exposed to a volatile mix of nationalist grievances, misogyny, and nihilistic violence. Governments are far from equipped to confront this rising threat; often they don’t even know what they’re looking for. Yet the longer this goes undetected, the greater the risk that it spills into real-world violence.

Online radicalization isn’t new. For years, groups like Islamic State have used social media platforms, slick digital propaganda magazines, and even artificial intelligence to recruit fighters and supporters. This globalized jihad had a clear aim: the establishment of a caliphate.

But today’s threat is different and more elusive. Singapore’s Internal Security Department has described it as “salad bar” extremism, a phenomenon where people cherry-pick from a range of hardline influences rather than subscribing to a single doctrine.

None of the recent cases point to a coordinated movement, nor do they supersede the threat of Islamist extremism, which remains the most prevalent organized menace in the region. Still, the emergence of this digital ecosystem is worrying because it is harder to detect and disrupt precisely because it lacks a formal structure.

These issues aren’t unique to Asia. This month’s mass shooting in Canada, which left several people dead and many more injured, previous school shootings in the US, and the Southport attack in the UK have also been potentially linked to nihilistic online movements. The pattern is global, but ignoring it locally would be a mistake.

Young men are particularly vulnerable. The reasons are complex and include social isolation, economic pessimism, and a perceived erosion of male status in rapidly modernizing societies. The incel subculture — involuntarily celibate men who resent their inability to find romantic or sexual partners — has become part of this troubling mix. These grievances are amplified online, spreading through digital forums, social media and even seeping into gaming communities.

Authorities are beginning to recognize this trend as an emerging concern, says Saddiq Basha, senior analyst at the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University. “This is creating a fertile environment for a nihilistic worldview to take root,” he told me.

Singapore — a small but multiracial and multireligious society deeply conscious of the risk of terrorism and disharmony — has detained several youths over the past decade for plotting violence after being radicalized online. Among them were teens influenced by the ideology of Brenton Tarrant, the perpetrator of the 2019 Christchurch massacre who killed 51 people at two mosques. Singaporean officials say that some of those radicalized in recent years had consumed a mix of this extremist propaganda, racist conspiracy narratives, and violent manifestos.

Indonesia offers another warning. In November last year, the bombing of a high school in Jakarta was described by police as “memetic violence” — an attack shaped by the desire to imitate, rather than allegiance to an organization. The perpetrator also drew inspiration from Tarrant, as well as the 2017 Quebec City mosque attacker Alexandre Bissonnette and other school shooters, notes the Washington-based think tank Jamestown Foundation. Authorities also believe he was radicalized by the online “True Crime Community” forums that glorify mass killers, rather than following any specific ideology.

A related but distinct trend has emerged in South Korea. Online groups like New Men’s Solidarity have become a hub for anti-feminist rhetoric, attracting hundreds of thousands of views and subscribers on YouTube. Their messaging blames women’s progress for young men’s struggles, and describes feminism as a “social evil.” These platforms don’t necessarily advocate violence directly, but they normalize male victimhood and provide overly simple explanations for complex frustrations.

Prevention must start young. Given the nature of how these ideas are spread — online and through algorithm-driven feeds — governments may be tempted to follow Australia’s lead and impose nationwide curbs on social media for minors. This could reduce exposure at the margins.

But platform controls alone cannot address deeper drivers. Tackling this generation’s identity anxiety and social isolation requires a whole-of-society response — from governments and schools to families. Expanding digital literacy education from primary school, strengthening early intervention programs, and investing in youth mental health services are essential steps.

At the regional level, coordination must improve. Asian counterterror forces — such as Indonesia’s Densus-88 — have become adept at dismantling extremist networks. But this is a different kind of threat, so they need to adapt to track how these ideas spread and turn into digital ecosystems. 

The greatest challenge may lie closer to home. Conservative societies will need to confront narratives that frame female success as national decline. And where economic and educational gaps between men and women are widening, governments should address this directly by creating forums for open discussion while simultaneously regulating and monitoring sites where grievances can spread.

None of this will be easy. But failing to act now risks allowing a new generation to be shaped by insidious ideas, spreading quietly through feeds and forums — hiding in plain sight.

BLOOMBERG OPINION