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.

© Bloomberg