DiplomaticQuarter: EU envoy visits Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh

Patrick Simonnet, head of the EU delegation Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman, was briefed on the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology’s activities. (Supplied)

RIYADH: Patrick Simonnet, head of the EU delegation Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman, recently visited the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology, known as Etidal.
During the visit, the EU envoy and his accompanying delegation were briefed on the center’s strategies to counter extremist ideology and the techniques used in the process.
The secretary-general of the center, Dr. Mansour Al-Shammari, presented Simonnet with a souvenir. The ambassador praised the center’s work. In his comments on the center’s visitors’ book, he wrote: “Thank you so much for you important work — important for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but also for Europe. We all have the same enemy in common, we all count on you and you can count on us. I am looking forward to continued cooperation on all topics, which will contribute to making the region safe and more stable. All my admiration to your dedicated team. ”
The center was established on three basic pillars: Confronting extremism by the latest intellectual, media, and numerical methods and means.
The center uses different methods to counter extremist ideology such as software capable of monitoring, classifying, and analyzing any extremist content within just 6 seconds of its online broadcast and with more than 80 percent accuracy. It has a team of multidisciplinary researchers competent in using data analytical tools.
It operates in the extremists’ most widely used languages and dialects. Advanced analytical models are being developed to locate digital media platforms, highlight the extremist focal point, and secret sources of polarization and acquiring activities.
The center works to refute hate and extremist speech and promote concepts of moderation through the production of media content that confronts radical thoughts.