Online radicalisation and foreign interference among rising threats to NZ
In its latest security threat environment report, the NZ Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) warns the country faces 'the most challenging national security environment of recent times', with increasingly unstable relationships between states as well as rising levels of polarisation and grievance.
The report says there has been 'a noticeable increase' in foreign interference actors visiting the country in the last 18 months, highly likely to have asked to build relationships with specific parts of New Zealand society and conceal their links to foreign states.
China is singled out as the most active nation undertaking foreign interference in New Zealand (although not the only one), with a section on the country's United Front Work Department and its efforts to build influence with individuals and organisations in countries like New Zealand.
'It is important to acknowledge that not all [United Front] activity is foreign interference and some engagements can have benefits for New Zealand organisations. However, its activities are regularly deceptive, coercive and corruptive and come with risks for New Zealand organisations.'
The security report emphasises concerns about transnational repression, saying some New Zealanders are being targeted by foreign states in a bid to keep diaspora communities politically loyal even though they live in another country.
The agency says it is aware of 'co-optees' monitoring social media, photographing individuals at events, or instructing other community members to collect information on behalf of foreign states, with the risk that such information could be used to coerce the person being monitored or their family back home.
In one case, a foreign state asked a co-optee to collect information on a New Zealand-based person who had applied for refugee status – 'almost certainly' because they were a member of the rainbow community.
The report also says it is aware of foreign intelligence officers who have travelled to New Zealand to likely support 'coercive repatriation' of people back to their country of origin. Though it does not name any states, Newsroom has previously reported on China's efforts to force alleged criminals to return from countries including New Zealand.
Foreign agents have been taking control of community organisations by co-opting or replacing leaders, with the replacements sidelining those deemed to be a challenge to the foreign state's agenda and sometimes restricting government officials from speaking to the wider community.
In one case, a New Zealand official who wanted to share 'important security advice' with a community was discouraged from doing so by a community leader (also a government employee) who had undertaken activity in support of a foreign state's objectives: 'Even though the intent of the security advice was to raise awareness of risks, the gatekeeper likely thought it was against the interests of a particular foreign state.'
The report also raises concerns about increasingly polarised and violent rhetoric both in the real world and online, including 'a notable degree of misplaced agitation and blame for perceived societal ills' at the fringes.
'Much of this rhetoric exists solely online, and its spread is aided by algorithms that push controversial content because it generates the most engagement.'
The NZ Security Intelligence Service says it has not seen any sophisticated state-backed information operations directly targeting New Zealand, but believes New Zealanders 'have almost certainly consumed foreign state-manipulated information when active online, even if they are not the target audience of that information'.
Young and vulnerable Kiwis were particularly at risk of being radicalised online, with teenagers increasingly coming to the attention of security services as unfettered internet access shortened pathways to violence.
'What might have previously been considered societal risks associated with internet safety, now have the potential to pose an ongoing risk to New Zealand's national security.'
In an interview with Newsroom, NZSIS director-general Andrew Hampton said the report was not intended to alarm people, but to raise public awareness about the growing threats.
'We certainly don't want to cause despair or anxiety. I actually believe that in a democracy like ours, the public are often those who are best placed to actually see concerning behaviours, report them and take steps to mitigate them.'
Although much of the activity outlined in the report was not currently illegal, Hampton said the Government's foreign interference legislation – which is yet to pass its second reading in Parliament – would allow police to take action and give communities a clearer demonstration of what activities were unacceptable in New Zealand, acting as a deterrent to foreign states and the 'sympathetic individuals' they co-opted.
Asked how the public should reconcile China's status as both New Zealand's largest trading partner and the most active state carrying out foreign interference here, he said the spy agency was well aware that our country's prosperity relied on its international and trade connections.
'We are not saying don't engage, and we're certainly not saying don't engage with China: what we are saying, though, is be cognisant of the risks that are associated with some of that engagement.'
On the issue of young New Zealanders being radicalised, Hampton said questions around greater regulation of internet access – such as a social media ban for under-16s as suggested by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and others – was for politicians and Parliament, but the agency wanted to draw attention to increased online engagement with grievance-based narratives.
'If you look at our current subjects of investigations – we're not talking about large numbers of people here – they're almost all young, in their teens or early 20s, they aren't part of global terrorist networks, they are people who have been largely radicalised online.'
The spy agency had been speaking to school principals and other educators about what online radicalisation looked like, and had received leads as a result of that work.
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