Today's Edition
ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)
TRENDS Research & Advisory, in collaboration with IMI Media Group, organised an international symposium titled "Deconstructing Extremist Narratives in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Media," as part of its participation in BRIDGE Summit 2025.
The symposium opened with remarks by Dr. Mohammed Abdullah Al-Ali, CEO of TRENDS, who said that extremism is no longer driven by direct interaction but has shifted to concealed digital spaces that are increasingly difficult to monitor.
He explained that extremist groups now possess unprecedented capabilities to segment content and target particular audiences, especially young people and consumers of short-form media.
Dr. Al-Ali stated that TRENDS is working to leverage knowledge to deconstruct extremist discourse and develop alternative narratives that promote peace and moderation, expressing appreciation for the efforts of international partners and symposium participants.
He added that confronting this “soft extremism’’ requires several pillars, including education, media, legislation and research analysis, emphasising that building broad intellectual resilience remains the most crucial long-term solution.
The symposium featured several speakers who offered analytical insights into the evolving dangers posed by extremist narratives in the artificial intelligence (AI) and digital communication environment and proposed strategic solutions to counter them.
Participants included Dr. Mohamed Hamad Al-Kuwaiti, Chairman of the UAE Cyber Security Council; Senator Nathalie Goulet, Senator of Orne in the French Senate; Gustav Gustenau, Secretary-General of the European Institute for Counter Terrorism and Conflict Prevention (EICTP); American journalist Emily Austin; and Dr. Sterling Jensen, Associate Professor in the Tolerance and Coexistence Section at Mohamed Bin Zayed University for Humanities.
The discussion, moderated by Michella Haddad, News Presenter at Sky News Arabia, outlined the nature of contemporary digital threats, noting that the world is living in a “digital war zone’’ where battles are waged through content, software and algorithms rather than traditional armies.
Haddad said that extremist groups have exploited the digital environment in unprecedented ways, gaining the ability to disseminate their messages widely without needing any physical presence. She noted that "a single click on a phone is now enough to push a radical message to thousands of people within seconds".
Haddad added that successfully countering digital extremism depends on the ability of research institutions, media platforms and policymakers to collaborate, describing the symposium as “an important intellectual milestone for charting a real roadmap to confront this escalating challenge’’.
Dr. Al-Kuwaiti delivered an overview of the UAE’s digital security systems, emphasising that the country’s success in topping global cybersecurity indicators is the result of an integrated ecosystem involving society, educational institutions, technology companies and security agencies.
He explained that digital extremism targets not only information infrastructure but also the collective awareness system, with extremist groups relying on information manipulation, content recycling and emotional polarisation to generate reactions filled with doubt and hostility.
He called for the development of digital prevention programmes that help build a protective knowledge shield that precedes any technical solutions.
Gustenau presented findings from an analysis on how the Muslim Brotherhood employs digital communication, explaining that the group operates through gradual strategies that begin with constructing a charitable image and eventually evolve into producing narratives that undermine the state and society.
He stressed the need to counter hybrid extremist organisations through specialised analysis centres that study both content and the organised networks producing it.
Dr. Sterling Jensen highlighted the educational and psychological dimensions of countering digital extremism, noting that young people now rely on AI to search for information without the ability to assess its credibility.
He explained that the lack of real-world social experiences allows distorted narratives to take root, creating closed ideological environments.
The symposium concluded with recommendations calling for stronger cooperation between think tanks and global technology companies, the establishment of specialised knowledge-monitoring networks to track misleading narratives, the design of educational curricula that promote critical thinking rather than passive consumption, and the development of interactive initiatives targeting youth within digital gaming environments, short content ecosystems and AI platforms.
