Youth radicalisation in the digital age

Opinion Piece

We made a mistake by allowing you to stay on,

You got your own country, why didn’t you leave then?

They call us Hindus “kaffirs”,

Their hearts are full of conspiracies against us.

These are the lyrics from the song Pehle Dharm Poocha (They Asked About Religion First), which was released on April 23rd, 2025, the day after the Pahalgam attack. Singer Kavi Singh, at 27 years old, insists that letting Muslims stay on in India after the country’s partition in 1947 was “a mistake”, and asks them to go to Pakistan.

This is the state of the new generation, in India and across the world. An increasingly polarised, radicalised and hateful youth fills the comments of YouTube videos and Instagram reels and is to be the future of tomorrow. The youth of today find themselves in a unique situation, bound by the endless stream of content on social media and the harsh realities of the new world. While expecting endless opportunities and an ever-expanding world, they have inherited a society that feels hopeless in many ways. So, there is no doubt that many of this generation feel a sense of disillusionment with the future. This same sentiment often drives them into radical spheres, which offer even a sliver of hope.

So why does Generation Z, find itself a victim of radicalization and communalism more than ever today?

A college student who graduated in the year of 2022 is one who came of age during the COVID-19 pandemic. The youth hoped to inherit a strong economy, with guaranteed jobs and an ever-improving society, one filled with love and hope. But today, wars rage across the globe, unemployment hits record highs, mental issues escalate, and the world around them is ever polarised. Looming over it all is the giant burden of saving the world from climate change and being the last generation that can change the course of humanity.

Overwhelmed, they turn to social media as a distraction from the world. Often, they find people offering different approaches, separate from the norm. Susceptible, they are sucked into echo chambers promoting extreme ideologies and populist discourse. These spaces often act like quicksand; the more one interacts with it, the deeper they are pulled in.

This is prominent as we see young men, driven towards extremist right-wing ideologies, often driven by online grooming on social media and gaming platforms, which target vulnerable individuals through narratives of victimhood, anti-minority sentiment and a masculine crisis. In an individualistic society, with an absence of community and good mentor figures, the youth are increasingly susceptible to such messaging. Alternate or radical pathways seem enticing to tackle their dissatisfaction.

In India, social media is often used as a tool to promote Hindu nationalism, which is a political ideology that promotes the creation of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, predominantly focused on the supremacy of the upper caste. The song referenced in the beginning is a prime example of Hindu right-wing extremism, embraced by the youth. These echo chambers always showcase a particular ideology without giving a fair chance to those who disagree with it. So, we find many of the youth going down the right-wing pipeline of radicalization and eventual extremism. Online, we find a breeding ground for Hindu radicalization, which is especially aimed at Muslim youth, intensifying pre-existing social divisions and conflicts.

However, a question arises: does merely interacting with social media content actually affect the larger society we live in?

We see political parties using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram for propagating their ideologies. In the recent media environment, these platforms have become a breeding ground for hate speech and inciting violence against on minority communities. Research (Fahad, 2025) points to a significant relationship between social media dynamics and intercommunity interactions, especially in a metropolitan setting, as words like 'anti-national', 'jihadists', and 'terrorists' fill comment sections.

“I have seen so many posts about Hindutva saying, we (Muslims) need to be wiped out,” said a respondent in the research. Hate is the primary tool used to proliferate divisive narratives. CJP documented 180 instances of targeted violence against Indian Muslims post the Pahalgam attack. Of these, 77 took place in April, and 103 in May. These spanned from outright cases of murder (3 specific instances, 3 victims) to nearly 99 cases of hate speech (made by politicians, proponents of Hindutva and other individuals and organisations with affiliations to the Hindu-right). Radicalization has resulted in the production of fake news and even violence and attacks carried out against Muslims. An example of this is the cow vigilante attacks. Fabricated news on social media leans to the assault of individuals by cow vigilantes.

Such radicalization is appealing to the younger generation because of the methods used to make right-wing culture more acceptable. Extremists propagate their hateful views on the internet through humour and sarcasm and package their views for mainstream consumption as jokes. They also use conspiracy theories, memes, trolling, and fake news to distribute the ideas. Not only do they occupy space online, groups such as the RSS also influence children through educational institutions, indoctrinating them from a young age. A strong tactic used by extremists is to undermine the expertise of others by ridiculing them or shaming them through hate comments. Slowly, this divisive rhetoric makes its way into public discourse and is being normalised by the new generation.

To address these issues, we must see government legislation prohibiting hate speech online and social media platforms take accountability for the posts on the platform. As a media society, we must promote positive and accurate information and fact-check content before we consume it. We must also raise awareness of the harms and potential pitfalls of digital platforms among the youth. As a community, we must foster love and brotherhood and establish neutral safe spaces where people can congregate and freely express their opinions. Healthy debate among intellectuals and the protection of the freedom of expression of all communities are essential to further our democracy. In a fight against radicalization. We must not look away, but rather stare hatred in the eye, and commit to our own generation, an era of tolerance, harmony and cohesion among members of the society.

References:

Citizens for Justice and Peace. (2023). Report on hate speech and communal incidents in India.

Fahad, A., Mustafa, S.E. Locked in echoes: unveiling the dynamics of social media echo chambers and Hindu radicalization targeting Muslim youth in Delhi. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 12, 324 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04638-w