Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev has announced a tougher state response to online radicalization, warning that authorities will target networks that encourage young people to commit acts of violence and present brutality as acceptable behavior.
Demerdzhiev made the comments on Monday evening in a Facebook post following the brutal killing of a 37-year-old man in Plovdiv. Five teenagers have been charged in connection with the death after investigators said they arranged a meeting with the victim while posing as so-called “pedophile hunters” on social media.
According to investigators, the teenagers severely assaulted the man and humiliated him while other members of the group recorded the attack. The case has also raised concerns over the influence of Russian neo-Nazi Maxim Martsinkevich, known as Tesak, whose ideology reportedly portrays self-harm and violence as a form of “justice.”
Demerdzhiev said he plans to propose measures aimed at tackling this type of online radicalization and has already met with cybersecurity specialists and social media analysts monitoring extremist activity online.
“Until now, the state has often underestimated the scale of the digital processing of our children, but this period of institutional neglect is coming to an end,” he said.
