Police in France have arrested a third suspect in connection with a deadly
terror attack in Nice, CBS News' Imtiaz Tyab reports. The country has

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


November 2, 2020

 

CBS News: Third Suspect Arrested In Connection To Suspected Terror Attack In
French Church
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“Police in France have arrested a third suspect in connection with a deadly
terror attack in Nice, CBS News' Imtiaz Tyab reports. The country has raised
its security alert to the highest level amid recent killings. Authorities say a
suspected terrorist stabbed and killed three people inside the Notre Dame
Basilica on Thursday, just two weeks after a teacher was beheaded in a Paris
suburb. The stabbing suspect, named Ibrahim Issaoui according to investigators,
is a 21-year-old Tunisian national who entered Europe just over a month ago. He
is now in critical condition after being shot by police. A 35-year-old man was
arrested overnight, the Associated Press reported, citing a judicial official.
That suspect had met with Issaoui in Nice. Another man, 47, was already in
custody. Officials say he was in contact with Issaoui the night before he went
on his stabbing spree. French President Emmanuel Macron has denounced the
killings as an “Islamist terrorist attack.” There have been three separate
assaults since September connected to cartoons depicting the Muslim Prophet
Muhammad that were first published in 2015 by the satirical magazine Charlie
Hebdo — and were republished again this September.”

 

The New York Times: Gunmen Storm Kabul University, Killing At Least 19
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"Gunmen laid siege to Afghanistan’s largest university on Monday, killing at
least 19 people and wounding more than a dozen others, officials said, as
rising violence in the Afghan capital resulted in carnage at an educational
center for the second time in just over a week. The attack at Kabul University
on a warm fall day dragged on for hours as Afghan forces and U.S. troops moved
to root out the gunmen, who had quickly spread across campus, detonating
explosives and firing their weapons. Video and photographs posted to social
media showed students scrambling for cover and clambering over walls to get to
safety. Sporadic gunshots echoed in the background. Fardin Ahmadi, a social
science student, said he was stuck in his classroom for two hours, until Afghan
forces evacuated him and several others. “The situation was very bad,” Mr.
Ahmadi said. “Every single student wanted to save their own life; we had
forgotten about anything else. The exact number of dead and wounded was murky,
as the attackers were still barricading themselves in classrooms four hours
after the first shots rang out."

 

United States

 

The Detroit News: Accused Neo-Nazi Leader Had Manifesto, Wanted Race War,
Prosecutors Say
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“The leader of a white supremacy group was granted bond Friday as state
prosecutors portrayed his gang as a dwindling crew committed to inciting a race
war in the United States. Accused leader of the Base, Justen Watkins, 25, of
Bad Axe, and associate Alfred Gorman, 35, of Taylor, represent the “last
vestiges” of the neo-Nazi group that has been the target of repeated arrests
and raids nationwide, Assistant Attorney General Sunita Doddamani said. “These
are the last vestiges of this group,” the prosecutor said. “Their goal is to
create a race war and white ethnostate,” a nation open only to white people.
The men, arrested Thursday during a continuing crackdown on extremism in
Michigan, made brief appearances in front of 14A District Court Magistrate
James Cameron, who presided over a virtual videoconference from Washtenaw
County. Cameron set bond at $100,000, or 10%, for Watkins during a hearing that
provided new insight into a pair of FBI raids Thursday, including at a rural
farmhouse in Bad Axe. The 3.5-acre farm is where prosecutors say Watkins ran a
“hate camp” for members of the group to prepare to overthrow the government. “I
do believe there does exist some potential danger to the community,” Cameron
said.”

 

The Independent: Experts Warn Of ‘Rapid Increase’ In Radical-Right Extremism
And Domestic Terrorism Following US Election
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“Academic experts on the radical right have raised “alarm” that the US could
see a “rapid” rise in right-wing extremism and domestic terrorism following the
2020 presidential election. In an open letter sent to The Independent, 17
specialists on radical right discourse warn that “anti-democratic methods will
become normalised in pursuit of still darker, radical-right agendas.” “We fear
that should election violence or a contested outcome in the US come to pass,
there could be a rapid increase in radical-right extremism, including increased
risks of domestic terrorism,” the letter reads. Donald Trump has on a number of
occasions refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power in the event he
loses the 3 November presidential election to Democratic rival Joe Biden. The
scholars express fears that the president’s refusal to accept the result of the
election in the event of a narrow margin will further encourage a radical-right
agenda. “As experts and practitioners on the radical right globally, past and
present, we have seen this movie before,” the letter says. If Mr Trump refuses
to accept the election outcome and presents a host of legal challenges that
delay the transfer of power, the country could be left in unprecedented
territory.”

 

Iraq

 

Reuters: Iraq's Kurdistan Says Exports To Turkey Halted After Terrorist Attack
- Statement
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“Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government said in a statement on Friday that the
terrorist attack on an oil pipeline which occurred on Wednesday resulted in
halting exports to Ceyhan, a city in Turkey’s Adana province. The statement did
not elaborate if the crude flow to Turkey has been resumed.”

 

Asharq Al-Awsat: Security Forces Launch Operation Against ISIS In Iraq’s Diyala

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“Iraqi security forces launched a military operation in the Diyala province
northeast of Baghdad to clear the area of ISIS cells. The operation was kicked
off a week after the Khilanih massacre in Diyala where five family members of
the Bani Kaab tribe, including its chief, were killed by ISIS. Sheikh Fadalah
al-Kaabi was one of the influential tribal leaders in the region and had
participated in the operations against ISIS, which is likely why the
organization kidnapped and killed him. Prior to the Diyala massacre, eight
family members were killed and four others kidnapped in Salaheddine’s Balad
district. Mystery still surrounds the case, amid accusations that a Popular
Mobilization Forces (PMF) faction that controls the region is responsible for
the incident. The Diyala Operations Command began combing al-Khilanih village,
in al- Muqdadiyah district, discovering two ISIS hideouts. Engineering units
began opening roads and clearing the area, and will continue to pursue the
terrorists. The air force participated in bombing the ISIS targets in different
areas of Diyala, as part of the operation, which covers 12 agricultural
villages. The army is seeking to secure the military convoys in agricultural
areas.”

 

Kurdistan 24: Coalition And Kurdish Forces Conduct Anti-ISIS Operation In
Iraq’s Disputed Makhmour
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“A senior Peshmerga commander announced on Saturday that Kurdish forces
conducted last Saturday a joint operation with the US-led Coalition against
members of the so-called Islamic State southwest of the Kurdistan Region
capital of Erbil. The Peshmerga’s Gwer-Qarachokh Front Commander, Sirwan
Barzani, said in a social media post that “a joint operation by #Peshmerga
commandos & Coalition forces was conducted at Qerechukh mountain.” “13 caves
were searched and cleared during the 48-hour period of the operation. Such
operations will continue to ensure that no hiding place is left for #ISIS
terrorist in the area.” The commander did not clarify if any clashes with
Islamic State fighters took place during the operation. “In recent months the
ISF and Peshmerga Forces have maintained a relentless rhythm of operations to
disrupt Daesh, enabled by Coalition support, including tactical information
sharing, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and air power,” Wayne
Marotto, the Spokesman for the US-led Coalition to defeat the Islamic State,
told Kurdistan 24 on Saturday. “The Coalition and our ISF partners are
committed in our mission to defeat Daesh (ISIS) in designated areas of Iraq and
Syria.”

 

Afghanistan

 

The New York Times: On Afghan Highways, Even The Police Fear The Taliban’s
Toll Collectors
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“When the long-haul trucker drives past this hilltop police outpost in
southern Afghanistan each week, he knows exactly what to do. The officers toss
down a box tied to a length of rope and like all drivers, the trucker places
5,000 afghanis — about $65 — in the box, which the officers then reel back up
to their outpost. The officers don’t dare collect such bribes in person, said
the trucker Dawlat Khan, “because the highway is controlled by the Taliban and
the police are afraid to come out.” Since the United States signed a troop
withdrawal agreement in February with the Taliban, the militants have
established new checkpoints along major highways, seizing control of long
stretches of roadways, extorting millions of dollars a month from truckers and
travelers and even displacing the police’s own efforts to extort bribes.
Truckers and bus drivers say government forces have remained inside their
bases, all but handing over control of many roadways to Taliban fighters. The
drivers say in addition to collecting “taxes,” the militants search vehicles
for soldiers or government employees, sometimes executing them on the spot. The
lucrative highway racket helps fund the Taliban’s war effort, but there is also
a strategic purpose: The militants use their control of many highways to launch
attacks on beleaguered government forces, bolstering their negotiating position
at the stalled peace talks in Doha, Qatar.”

 

The New York Times: Deadly Taliban Attack Probably Used Drone, A Worrisome
Shift
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“A Taliban attack, most likely carried out by a drone, killed at least four
security officers in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, according to senior and
local Afghan officials, representing what could be the group’s first publicly
known use of the method in the 19-year war. The strike targeted the governor’s
compound in Kunduz, a province that has seen heavy fighting, like much of the
country, in recent months despite continuing peace talks between Taliban and
Afghan government negotiators in Qatar. At least eight other people were
wounded in the blast, local officials said. “When the Kunduz governor
bodyguards were playing volleyball in the governor’s guesthouse, the explosion
took place among them,” said Ghulam Rabbani Rabbani, a member of Kunduz’s
provincial council. “It is not clear that it was an explosion or a missile or
drone attack,” he added. Fazal Karim Aimaq, a member of the Afghan Parliament
from Kunduz, said on his Facebook page that the episode represented “a new
method of attack” but did not say if a drone had carried it out. A Taliban
spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. The Taliban’s use of small,
over-the-counter drones has been limited in recent years to filming attacks for
propaganda and reconnaissance.”

 

Pakistan

 

Reuters: Indian Troops Kill Top Kashmiri Militant Commander
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“Indian security forces killed the chief of the largest militant group in
Kashmir in a gun battle on Sunday, as the disputed region is riven by violence
more than a year after New Delhi withdrew its semi-autonomy. The killing takes
the number of militants killed in the Muslim-majority region so far this year
by Indian troops to 190, police official Vijay Kumar told Reuters. Saiful Islam
Mir, commonly known as Saifullah, chief of the Hizbul Mujahideen militant
group, was shot dead in Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, Kumar said. Saifullah
took over the leadership of the group in the portion of Kashmir controlled by
India after its previous chief there, Riyaz Naikoo, was killed in a gun battle
with Indian troops in May. The overall head of the Pakistan-based Hizbul
Mujahideen is militant commander Syed Salahuddin, whom Washington placed on a
list of global terrorists in 2017. India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in
full but rule in part. New Delhi has long accused Pakistan of supporting an
armed insurgency in the Himalayan territory, a charge Islamabad denies. Last
August, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government reorganised the state
of Jammu and Kashmir, splitting it into federally-administered territories,
promising better governance.”

 

Lebanon

 

Reuters: Lebanon's Hezbollah Chief Calls French Cartoons 'An Aggression'
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“The leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah on Friday described French
cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad as an aggression and likened Paris sticking by
them to “declaring a sort of war”. In a televised speech, Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah said French authorities had worsened a standoff over the caricatures,
which stirred anger among Muslims, by being stubborn. The head of the heavily
armed Shi’ite movement condemned this week’s fatal stabbings at a church in
Nice, but said Western leaders also bore responsibility for such crimes because
of their roles in Middle East conflicts.”

 

Nigeria

 

Council On Foreign Relations: Northwest Nigeria Potential Jihadi Linchpin In
West Africa
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“Up to now, radical jihadi activity in West Africa has been centered in
Mali—with spillover to adjacent parts of Burkina Faso and Niger—and the Lake
Chad Basin. The two locales are now increasingly bridged by jihadi activity in
northwest Nigeria, where resurgent struggles over land and water with a cast of
ethnically aligned fighters and flourishing criminality provide them with new
space. Jihadi movements in all three regions are fractious, subject to bloody
internal rivalries, and overlap with criminal elements. They do share a
declared goal of establishing polities based on Islamic law—sharia—and the
destruction of the fragile, postcolonial secular states in the region.
(National borders, established by the former colonial powers, are largely
meaningless for most local people, as well as for criminals and jihadis.) Were
they to be successful, however, it is by no means clear that they could
establish coherent territorial governance much above the village level. No
charismatic leader such as Abu Musab al-Barnawi, Osama bin Laden, or even Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi has emerged to impose unity on the various jihadi groups now
active from the Lake Chad Basin to the western Sahel. More likely would be
decentralized regimes of warlordism led by Islamist and criminal opportunists.”

 

The Christian Post: Terrorist Group Releases Proof Of Life Video Of Abducted
Nigerian Pastor
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“A video released by a faction of the Boko Haram terrorist group in Nigeria
shows a  pastor pleading for government officials to secure his release and
that of two women who were abducted earlier this month. The Islamic State West
Africa Province, a jihadist terrorist organization based in northeastern
Nigeria, posted the video on YouTube on Oct. 19, giving proof of life of the
Rev. Polycarp Zongo of the Church of Christ in Nations, the U.S.-based
persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported. In the video,
Zongo can be seen telling how he and the two unnamed women were abducted.
Seeking the help of Gov. Simon Lalong, state Sen. I.D. Gyang, the Christian
Association of Nigeria and his denomination COCIN, he says they were traveling
from Jos city in Plateau State to the capital of Gombe State for a church
conference when their vehicle was stopped and they were abducted. “On Monday,
19 October 2020, I was traveling to Gombe for a church conference when we
encountered the caliphate’s armed men who captured me along the way; and right
now I’m with them,” he says in the video. Talking about the two women, he adds,
“They too, captured two Christian women who are also here with me. I’m
appealing that you all do all that is possible to secure our release from
captivity.”

 

Africa

 

Al Jazeera: Suspected ADF Attack In DRC Village Kills More Than 20 Civilians
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“More than 20 civilians have been killed in an attack on a village in the
eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to local authorities.
Authorities on Saturday blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group
for the attack the previous evening, saying its fighters first attacked a rival
group of Congolese militia members before killing inhabitants in the village of
Lisasa. Local administrator Donat Kibwana, from the Beni territory in North
Kivu province, put the “preliminary death toll” at 21. The figure was confirmed
by the head of the Buliki area, where Lisasa is located, according to the AFP
news agency. A local NGO called Cepadho said in a statement that of the 21
killed, 15 were women. All three sources were quoted as saying by AFP that more
people were kidnapped. A health centre was also ransacked, while homes were set
on fire and a Catholic church desecrated. “Everything happened yesterday
between 8pm and midnight – the armed men carried out a raid,” local leader
Kalunga Messo told the Reuters news agency on Saturday by phone. “They killed
our brothers without mercy.” The ADF, which originated in the 1990s in western
Uganda with the aim of creating an Islamic state, is one of dozens of armed
groups that plague the eastern provinces of the vast DRC.”

 

Al Jazeera: Kenyan Court Jails Men Over 2013 Westgate Mall Attack
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“A court in Kenya sentenced two men to 18 years in prison for helping
al-Shabab gunmen in a 2013 attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall that
killed 67 people. Mohamed Ahmed Abdi and Hussein Hassan Mustafa were sentenced
to 18 years each for providing support to the assailants. Abdi was given an
additional 15-year jail sentence for possession of materials promoting
“terrorism”. “This court has to pass a sentence … commensurate with the
offence,” Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi told the two on Friday as they stood
in a Nairobi courtroom. He said the seven years the men spent on remand would
be deducted from their sentences. The attack on the upscale mall, a favourite
of Kenya’s growing middle class and foreign workers, happened two years after
the East African nation sent troops into Somalia following a series of
kidnappings and raids on Kenyan soil by the armed group al-Shabab. Al-Shabab
has promised retribution for Kenya for sending troops to fight the group in
Somalia since 2011. Although there was no specific evidence the convicted pair
had provided material help, the court was satisfied their communication with
the attackers amounted to supporting the armed rampage, and justified the
guilty verdict for conspiracy.”

 

Reuters: Islamic State Claims Responsibility For Church Attack In Congo - Amaq
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“Islamic State claimed responsibility on Friday for an attack on a church in
eastern Congo that killed at least 18 people, the group’s Amaq news agency
reported, without evidence. The attack happened Wednesday night in Baeti
village in North Kivu province. A civil rights group reported a death toll of
at least 18 people and a church being burned down.”

 

France

 

Reuters: Angry French City Asks After Church Attack: Why Us Again?
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“When a suspected Islamist from Tunisia killed three people this week in a
church in the French Riviera city of Nice, for many residents it brought
painful memories flooding back. Four years ago, another suspected Islamist
originally from Tunisia had driven a 19-tonne truck into a crowd about not far
from the church, killing more than 80 people. The church attack, coming on top
of the truck assault, left many people in Nice on Friday feeling they had
angry, and wanting to fight back against the people they believe are to blame.
“We’ve had enough,” Nice resident Francois Bonson, 38, said at the scene of the
church attack on Friday. He said his mother-in-law often visited the church,
and he initially feared she was among the victims. “We’re forced to live with
these foreigners who spit on us, who spit on France,” Bonson said. The truck
attack happened on July 14, 2016 as people in Nice were watching a fireworks
display to mark Bastille Day, France’s national holiday. Tunisian immigrant
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel steered the Renault truck into the crowd thronging
the seafront Promenade des Anglais. He was shot by police. The Islamic State
group said it was responsible for the attack.”

 

Agence France-Presse: How France Is Struggling With A Spiral Of Online
Jihadist Hate
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“…The online hate perpetuated the cycle of violence when an 18-year-old
Chechen decapitated Samuel Paty, a teacher who infuriated some parents when he
showed the Charlie Hebdo cartoons to students for a lesson on free speech.
Groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State lauded Paty's killer and
flooded the internet with calls to emulate his attack. Two weeks later, a young
Tunisian who arrived in France only in October killed three people at a church
in Nice. “The recent surge of terror attacks in France has shown that now, more
than ever before, we need to clamp down on the spread of terrorist content
online,” said David Ibsen, executive director of the Counter Extremism Project.
France has already promised tougher action against online hate after Paty's
murder - the teacher's name and the address of his school had been posted in
the social media campaign against him. Yet Ibsen said governments face an
uphill battle without concerted efforts by the companies providing the
platforms that extremists are so easily exploiting. “The continued ease of
access to hyper-violent imagery and videos on social media demonstrates tech
companies' failure to keep their promises and address the prevalence of
extremist and terrorist content online,” he said.”

 

Europe

 

Reuters: Spanish Police Arrest Man For Praising Attack Near Paris
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“A Moroccan man was arrested in Barcelona for praising the beheading of a
French schoolteacher outside Paris this month and inciting more attacks, police
said on Saturday. The man, who was not named and who was detained on Friday,
posted messages on social media in support of the Oct. 16 murder of Samuel
Paty, Catalan regional police said. Paty was killed outside his school in a
Paris suburb by an 18-year-old Chechen who was apparently incensed by the
teacher showing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in class. Police shot the
attacker dead. “Police officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra have arrested a man
of Moroccan nationality, for an alleged crime of exaltation of terrorism and a
crime of incitement to commit terrorist crimes,” Catalan police tweeted. The
suspect appeared before a court in Barcelona on Saturday and was released on
condition he surrender his passport and appear before magistrates every 14
days, police said. An attacker killed three people in a church in Nice on
Thursday in the second deadly knife attack in France in two weeks. Three people
have been taken into custody. The attacks came amid growing Muslim anger across
the world over France’s defence of the right to publish cartoons depicting the
prophet.”

 

Voice Of America: French Terror Suspect Entered Europe Through Italian Port,
Italy Says
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“Italy's interior minister confirmed Friday the Tunisian man who killed three
people in an attack on worshippers at a church in Nice had passed through Italy
on his way to France. At a news conference in Rome, Interior Minister Luciana
Lamorgese said Ibrahim Issaoui disembarked from a migrant boat on Italy's
southernmost island of Lampedusa on September 20 and was given a repatriation
order to leave Italy on October 9. Lamorgese gave no further details on what if
any action was taken to act on the repatriation order or if Issaoui complied
with the order. Under current agreements with Italy, Tunisia agrees to take
back a maximum of 80 nationals a week. New arrivals are invariably handed
expulsion papers but are almost never detained until a flight home can be
organized. Instead, many move swiftly out of Italy, often heading to France,
which has a large Tunisian community. The Italian interior minister said
Issaoui was not flagged by either Tunisian authorities or by intelligence
agencies. Lamorgese has come under fire in Italy by right-wing politicians who
say she bears some responsibility for the killings in France for not preventing
Issaoui from entering Europe. The interior minister called on Italian political
parties “to take a break” from political infighting and to show solidarity with
the French people.”

 

Canada

 

CNN: Suspect In Medieval Clothing Killed 2 And Injured 5 In Quebec City Sword
Attack, Police Say
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“A 24-year-old suspect from Montreal wearing medieval clothing and wielding a
sword randomly attacked residents in a Halloween night of terror on Saturday
that left two people dead and five others hospitalized with “significant
lacerations,” according to police. “Everything leads us to believe that his
motives were personal in nature. Up until now he has not been linked to any
terrorist organization,” Robert Pigeon, Quebec City's chief of police, said
during a press conference Sunday morning. He added that the investigation into
the motive is continuing. Pigeon said police officers and residents remain
shaken and saddened after the bizarre events that took place in Quebec City's
old quarter close to Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel, a city landmark. After the
attack, police asked citizens to avoid the Parliament Hill area as they
searched for the suspect, whom police have not publicly identified. Shortly
after 1 a.m. local time, police said the suspect had been arrested in a Twitter
post and asked citizens to stay indoors with their doors locked as they
continued to search the area. The five injured victims were transported to
local hospitals and the suspect was taken to the hospital for evaluation,
police spokesperson Étienne Doyon said, according to CNN partner CBC News.”

 

Southeast Asia

 

The Straits Times: How Duo Got Influenced By Extremist On Social Media
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“Presenting himself as a man with deep knowledge of his religion, Zulfikar
Mohamad Shariff convinced Mr Mohamad Saiddhin Abdullah that he should also show
his support to terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Like
Zulfikar, Mr Saiddhin had a photo taken of himself striking a pose common for
ISIS fighters and posted it on his Facebook page. He was hauled up by the
authorities soon after…”

 

Technology

 

Brisbane Times: Telegram Battles To Vet Extremists Flocking To Its Encrypted
Platform
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“Administrators of the encrypted messaging platform Telegram have banned 1338
Jihadist-related bots or accounts in the past three days, after the terrorist
attack in the French city of Nice again put a spotlight on Islamic extremism.
There is no evidence at this stage the Nice attacker used Telegram, but the app
has become home to various forms of extremism in recent years, including the
far-right, as an alternative to platforms such as Facebook. Telegram allows
users to create a hiding spot for videos, digital versions of texts and
photographs that can be either public or private. The app is also used by drug
traffickers, arms dealers and conspiracy theorists, and was a preferred
communication platform for organisers of recent protests against Victoria's
pandemic lockdown. Launched by Pavel and Nikolai Durov in 2013 and based in
Dubai, Telegram has a public channel called ISIS Watch that notes the number of
jihadist-related accounts it removes each day; 17,036 in total between October
1 and 29, and 275,054 for the calendar year. Monitoring channels, groups and
bots for jihadist content is not a simple undertaking as Telegram has more than
400 million users who can easily establish channels with an unlimited number of
members, as well as groups which can have up to 200,000 members.”

 

Chicago Tribune: Critics Call Gary Franchi’s YouTube Channel, The Next News
Network, A Hive Of Conspiracy Theories. So How Has It Survived The Platform’s
Conspiracy Crackdown?
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“The Next News Network is a YouTube channel produced in Chicago’s western
suburbs that pumps out a dozen or so aggressively partisan videos each day.
They usually stick to praising President Donald Trump or attacking his critics,
but every so often they wade into the dark waters of conspiracy theory. In just
the last few months, the channel’s owner and host, Gary Franchi, has showcased
several baseless allegations, including a suggestion that antifa might be
behind the Western wildfires, an osteopath’s insistence that the COVID-19
pandemic was “a false flag operation” and a claim that Democratic politicians
had members of Seal Team 6 killed to cover up a dirty deal with Iran …
Franchi’s resilience doesn’t surprise Hany Farid, a University of California at
Berkeley computer science professor who studies YouTube’s response to
conspiracy channels. He said for all the headlines about the crackdown, social
media platforms put their financial interests first. “At the end of the day,
you’re pushing up against very powerful companies," he said. "My impression is
they do just enough to get people off their backs, but their hearts aren’t into
it.”

 



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