The boy, of Egyptian origin, is accused of incitement to commit crimes with the aim of terrorism after intense jihadist propaganda activity on social media. A case that rekindles the alarm about early radicalization and the role of algorithms in online recruitment.
Yes it was independently radicalizedonline, building over time a digital presence based on jihadist propaganda. A 17 year old boy, of Egyptian origin and resident in the province of Comowas reached in the early hours of Tuesday by a precautionary custody order with community placementissued by the investigating judge of the Juvenile Court of Milan and efollowed by the ROS carabinieri, with the support of the provincial command of Como. The young man will have to answer for incitement to commit crimes aggravated by the use of IT and telematic tools, with reference to crimes with the aim of terrorism. According to what was reconstructed by the investigators, the minor would have started a systematic activity of dissemination and promotion of jihadist content through social networks as early as 2024, with explicit references to Islamic State (ISIS) and others Al Qaeda. The investigation, launched in October last year by Ros of Milanstarted from the identification of a network of profiles also active at an international level, operating on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and on private messaging services such as Telegram and WhatsApp. Propaganda materials praising armed jihad and the main jihadist terrorist organizations were shared within chats and digital channels.
The analysis of the profiles led to the identification of the 17 year old as particularly active in the publication and relaunch of multimedia content characterized – according to the investigators – by a clear apologetic conductwith references to leading figures of the Islamic terrorism. Videos, images and other propaganda material attributable to the same ideological matrix were found on the seized devices. The investigations also highlighted contacts with individuals already arrested in the past for terrorism crimes, involved in the online dissemination of jihadist content and messages inciting violence: an element that strengthened the accusatory framework, despite the absence – the investigators point out – of immediate operational planning. The case fits into an increasingly alarming European picture. According to the most recent data, in 2024 in the European Union have been recorded approx 450 arrests for crimes related to terrorism, with a prevalence of proceedings attributable to jihadist origins. Within this scenario, the youth component is growing: in several European countries a significant proportion of those arrested or investigated are under 18, a sign of increasingly precocious radicalisation. In some national contexts, such as United Kingdomup to four out of ten arrests for terrorism involve minors, a figure that has pushed the authorities to strengthen monitoring of the web and social platforms. At the continental level, Europol recently coordinated targeted operations against online extremist propaganda, reporting thousands of violent contents explicitly aimed at a young audience, spread through social channels and encrypted messaging systems.
Second Elisa Garfagnaexpert in terrorist propaganda on the web, «the real point is that today propaganda is no longer just looking for soldiers, it’s looking for “followers”. For a seventeen-year-old, certain contents do not come as political proclamations, but as an aesthetic: 4K videos, pounding musicand, memes who use the same language as their favorite creators. THEjihadism it thus becomes a pop product, almost a viral trend that infiltrates your free time between one gaming video and another.” What is the real danger? «What algorithms create: if you start watching certain videos, social media closes you in a bubble where that violence becomes the only possible reality, completely normalized. It is a silent and very fast self-radicalization, which takes place in the bedroom of the house under the eyes of parents and teachers, who often do not have the technical tools to realize that theThe boy is slipping into a parallel world until the authorities intervene.” It is in this context that the intervention of the Italian authorities takes place. In fact, this is the second minor, within a few months, to receive a precautionary measure issued by the Juvenile Court of Milan on terrorism: in November last year a young man of Tunisian origin was arrested in Pavese. No direct connections emerge between the two cases – underlined by ROS. The operation confirms how the terrorist threat linked to the processes of youth self-radicalization represents today one of the most delicate challenges for European security: a phenomenon that develops almost entirely in the digital space and which involves increasingly younger subjects, often intercepted when the ideological path is already advanced.
