DOD issued new guidelines Monday to define and fight extremist activity among service members, along with a long-awaited report from the department’s Countering Extremist Activity Working Group.
“Extremist activity within the Department of Defense is rare, but even the actions of a few can have an outsized impact on unit cohesion, morale and readiness,” the report concludes.
One of the new rules says that a service member may face punishment for sharing or “liking” social media content that meets the report’s definition of extremism.
“The physical act of liking is, of course, advocating, right?” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said Monday, as The Hill reported. “And advocating for extremist groups, groups that advocate violating their oath to the Constitution, overthrow the government, terrorist activities, liking is an advocation, and that’s laid out clearly in the instruction.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin assembled the working group after a DOD-wide stand down early this year.
“We owe the men and women of the Department of Defense an environment free of extremist activities, and we owe our country a military that reflects the founding values of our democracy,” Austin said in an introduction to the report, saying that the “overwhelming majority” of service members follow their oath to defend the Constitution with honor and integrity.
Kirby told reporters Monday that “about 100” service members participated in activities in 2021 that the department considers extremist.
Navy photo by Seaman Apprentice Mikal Chapman
