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Members of the Muslim community are sifting through distressing online content to report potential threats as government resourcing for the work is constrained.

The Federation of the Islamic Associations of New Zealand (Fianz) has a group of fewer than 10 volunteers scouring the internet, from social media to the dark web, looking for threats to their community.

Content they believe represents a threat is passed on to the police and the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Fianz have now overtaken the DIA and other government agencies as the leading source of referrals of potential Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content (TVEC).

According to the DIA’s Digital Violent Extremism Transparency Reports, the agency itself made 261 detections in 2021 that were investigated.

There were 141 referrals made by other government agencies, 131 made by the public and 108 from NGOs.

By 2024, this had reversed – the DIA made just 24 referrals, other government agencies made 96, while the public had made 192 and NGOs had made 340.

NGOs made 340 referrals of extremist content in 2024, more than any agency.

Fianz chairman Abdur Razzaq said the March 15 mosque attacks, when 51 worshippers were murdered by Australian terrorist Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch in 2019, were a wake-up call.

He said that with many members of their community killed and others wounded, Kiwi Muslims felt obligated not to purely rely on other agencies, but to do what little they could themselves.

“So we thought it’s very important we also monitor for our own safety, and see what is out there. If there are any imminent or important issues which we can see, which we can then pass on to the authorities.”

Among what they refer are things “which have a tangible, identifiable element where we feel like, they’re going to do planning for an attack or talking about an attack”.

Fianz's Abdur Razzaq. Photo / Mark Mitchell

In one example, Razzaq said, in 2024 the team found someone had turned the terrorist’s attack footage into a video game.

He said they’d seen this before, but this time it was far more graphic.

“And of course, this is extremely traumatising, not only for the family and the children, but the whole entire community, and I’m sure everybody else.

“We immediately notified the DIA and I think within three hours they were able to bring it down.”

An Internal Affairs spokesperson said many of the NGO referrals are from larger and often international NGO agencies which specialise in identifying terrorist and violent extremist content.

They say an increase in these referrals highlights their partnerships with international not-for-profit organisations, such as the Counter Extremism Project.

“Pro-active scanning is undertaken by our investigators when investigative duties allow and following major events.”

However, the agency’s admitted resourcing issues have played a role in falling in-house detections.

The DIA has told Fianz that the sharp drop isn’t just a sign of reduced risk or lower visibility.

It said it “correlates with persistent resourcing and capacity constraints within Government and DIA teams responsible for content triage, monitoring, and proactive detection”.

“Civil society and NGO actors now carry a disproportionate share of the detection burden, underscoring the importance of multi-stakeholder resourcing, information sharing, and sustainable operational frameworks.”

The DIA has confirmed that a new team dedicated to protecting people and communities from online violent extremism was established in 2020.

Known as the Digital Violent Extremism Team, it began with six permanent staff plus a fixed-term principal adviser.

It was also supported by an Intelligence and Insights Team.

This had expanded from five to seven staff – before being dissolved. Four roles from this group were distributed across the Digital Safety group.

Now, recent organisational changes mean just five full-time staff remain dedicated to combating violent extremist content online.

Razzaq said many terrorists have an online presence, and if they aren’t monitored, we won’t know what’s going on.

But in spite of the Fianz community’s sense of duty, he said they wouldn’t subject themselves to having to witness and report this kind of content if they didn’t have to.

“We’re not geared up for this.

“If we felt others were looking at it, why would we? ... We are a religious charity organisation.”

The DIA says that often NGOs have close ties with the communities they serve, and people may feel safer reporting potential threats to those groups.

It says it’s “appreciative of the role NGOs play in protecting their communities and reporting potentially objectionable material” and will continue working closely with them.

Emily Ansell is an Auckland-based ��һ�ǿ�����talk ZB multimedia journalist, with a focus on court, local health and social issues and general news.