FBI’s Online Anti-Extremism Effort Meets Resistance
When it was introduced last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “Don’t Be a Puppet” campaign was billed as a novel way to help educate teenagers about avoiding the pull of violent extremism.
The website, which teaches users how to pinpoint when young people are drifting toward radical ideology, is part of a broader initiative launched by the federal government to counter homegrown extremism. The site’s development comes as the Islamic State terror group seeks to ramp up its recruitment of young people in the West.
But as high-school students around the nation continue to settle into a new school year, the American Federation of Teachers union and other groups have come out against the campaign.
In August, the groups, which include the American Association of School Administrators and American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, wrote a letter to FBI director James Comey saying they were “deeply troubled” by the Don’t Be A Puppet campaign and claimed it would increase distrust of Muslim and Middle Eastern students. Critics of the website fear that the recent bomb attacks in New York and New Jersey, and stabbings at a Minnesota mall, will be used to further justify its use with young people.
The website—which walks users through various topics related to extremism and allows them to “free the puppet’ after each section—references religious and environmental extremism, white supremacy, and anarchists. It offers short explanations of the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.
Specifically, the advocacy groups have raised concerns that the computer program can too easily be interpreted as singling out Muslims. Critics have taken issue with several of the potential signs of extremist behavior that the website warns users to report—such as “talking about traveling to places that sound suspicious” and “using code words or unusual language.”
They have also objected to a video of an Arab-American woman on the site who said she had perceived the FBI as “the enemy” as she recounts reporting to authorities how she was the victim of a hate crime.
“We know we need to be hypervigilant. But there’s a difference between being hypervigilant and engaging in racial profiling,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “This program, while probably well intended, shouldn’t go forward.”
Matthew Bertron, an FBI spokesman said the agency was aware of the concerns raised by the union and “plans to engage directly with the group’s leaders in the near future.” He declined to say how many schools have expressed interest in using it.
Many of the federal government’s recent efforts to stymie radical Islamic ideology has focused on community outreach and on pushing back against Islamic State’s social media efforts to recruit jihadists online.
In July, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was allocating $10 million of its budget to launch the first federal grant initiative geared toward countering violent extremism, aimed at local and state governments, schools and nonprofits.
The broader effort, known as CVE, or “Countering Violent Extremism,” has been met with resistance from some Muslim and civil-rights groups who say it unfairly stigmatizes Muslims.
But the Don’t Be a Puppet campaign is solely under the aegis of the FBI.
Mr. Bertron, who declined to release details on the cost of the program, said the FBI was conducting outreach about Don’t Be a Puppet through events tailored toward teachers and directly with schools and school districts.
Recently, the FBI’s Minneapolis field office was invited by a statewide group of school principles to talk about radicalization, and agents plan on discussing Don’t Be A Puppet.
Last month, a Somali-American man stabbed 10 people in St. Cloud, Minn. A media outlet linked to Islamic State described the man as a “soldier,” but police haven’t found that he had any direct contact with the terror group.
FBI Director James Comey testified at a congressional last month that investigators have found evidence he was motivated “by some sort of inspiration from radical Islamic groups,” but said they hadn’t reached a conclusion about which group or groups, because they are still reviewing his online activities.
“We’ve seen a growing trend of violent extremist groups trying to recruit teenagers, especially over the internet,” Mr. Comey says in a videotaped message posted on the Don’t Be a Puppet website. “We created this website to talk about violent extremism, what it is, who it impacts and how to recognize it if you, or someone you love is being recruited.”
Some in the education field said they thought the computer program could prove useful.
“How could any rational person, or just anyone who cares about protecting innocent life, oppose teaching young people how to recognize recruiting strategies of Islamic extremists?” said Craig Strazzeri, Director of Operations for PragerU.com, a conservative education group that produces weekly online videos on current events and was founded by talk-radio host Dennis Prager.
Others expressed doubts. Jane Mazza is a reading teacher at Fordson High School in Dearborn, Mich., a city of 95,000 where about 45% of the population is of Arab descent, according to census data.
Ms. Mazza, an AFT member, examined the program online recently and said she didn’t think she would use it. She said she felt it would ostracize those in her classroom who have immigrant backgrounds.
“I have students who want to join the FBI, who want to be in the military,” she said. “If we’re trying to discourage the extremist point of view, we need to work on telling kids that America is the land of opportunity.”