The Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology (Etidal) continued its participation in the United Nations (UN) activities for Counter-Terrorism Week 2021, with a paper entitled "Etidal Center Monitoring the Behavior of Extremist Groups on Social Media during COVID-19 Pandemic," in a virtual session on Wednesday. The session entitled "Preventing the Abuse of New Communication Platforms was organized by the permanent delegation of Saudi Arabia to the UN, in cooperation with the UN Center for Counter-Terrorism (UNCCT), with the participation of the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), and the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED). In its paper, Etidal addressed the extremist groups' dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and these groups' exploitation of the humanitarian crisis in their promotion of their extremist ideas through social media. Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office Vladimir Voronkov praised Etidal's paper, describing it as "excellent." Meanwhile, the Kingdom's permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Abdullah Bin Yahya Al-Mouallimi, stressed, in a speech at the beginning of the event, that the Kingdom has established many programs and centers that address extremist ideology by monitoring and combating it and refuting its arguments, including Etidal, which recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the UNCCT. — SPA
