Cultivation of Religious Extremism Through Facebook: The Case of Pakistan

1. Introduction

In today's digitally connected, highly interlinked yet equally polarized world, social media platforms have become the foundations of modern-day communication. Social media have practically revolutionized the way human beings interact with each other. With its power to overcome distance barriers, cross border controls, and tackle real-world communication hurdles, this digital link has gained phenomenal importance in our lives (Banks, 2010).

Social media apps create a virtual fantasy or at least create an illusion of it, where a user can express himself more freely and with more power than he can in the real world. The wide global range, elements of anonymity and immediacy, and providing a platform to be heard have made social media even more wanted tool of expression in modern times. With the elements of speed, ease of access for everyone, and wide reachability, social media have changed the dimensions of public communication at a very fast pace (Memon et al., 2015).

The growth of Social media users in Pakistan is no different story as there has been a rapid growth of Facebook and Twitter users across the country in the last 5 years (Ittefaq et al., 2022). This trend of social media usage has practically replaced the traditional media of communication as it is no longer just a platform to create and share content for information and entertainment.

This new era of information sharing and freedom of speech does not come without a price, however, it brings new threats along with opportunities (Soral et al., 2020). Due to social media's infiltration, many democratic societies are becoming more and more polarized in terms of "us and them". Some other significant effects of social media are the trolling of online victims, cyberbullying, vile and abusive comments, and online hate speech and harassment (Abbasi, 2018)

Social Media and Religious Extremism

Social media provides a restriction-free platform with anonymity to its users, which tempts them to use it more radically (Koehler, 2014). Social media, like a double-edged sword, can create a faster, easier, restriction-free environment that enables the users to utilize it as a critical social change agent. However, this also gives rise to some newer challenges, such as, misuse by the criminally minded personnel for destructive and divisive agendas (Guiora, 2013). Social media provides channels that are informal, large group-based, cheaper, anonymous, and decentralized (Hale, 2012; Neumann, 2013). This enables the extremist networks to bypass the time and space barriers (Weimann, 2015).

It is ironic to see that most of the ideologically motivated groups who are against social media and freedom of expression, in general, have a strong presence on Social media themselves and use it for their agendas effectively. Facebook has been excessively used in the past by young sympathizers and supporters of extremist groups to share videos and images furthering their agendas (Wacks et al., 2021).

Social media platforms like Twitter are even more useful for the online extremist elements as the originator of such tweets is often more difficult to locate making it easier for such extremist communicators to remain anonymous (Crettiez, 2011; Saltman & Russell, 2014). The ability to tweet and comment in local languages also makes it easier for these extremist elements to use these platforms for their campaigning (Saltman & Russell, 2014).

Social Media in Pakistan

In January 2024, there are around 111 million people in Pakistan in January 2024 who have internet access (broadband, 3G, 4G, cellular data), which makes up around 45.7 % of Pakistan's total population and this number has increased by 24 million or 27 % in last 1 year (Kemp, 2024). About 71.70 million Pakistanis that is 29.5 % of Pakistan's total population use various social media platforms to get information, entertainment, and to express their ideas. Facebook with more than 44.5 million users in February 2024 is found to be the biggest social media platform in Pakistan. This number increased by 7.2 million or 19.3% between 2023 and 2024 the resounding majority of 80.1% of Facebook users of Pakistan consists of male and only 19.9% of users are females. Around 72% of total Facebook users of Pakistan are between the ages of 18 to 34 making it the youth-dominated social media platform (Ittefaq et al., 2022).

According to Kemp, there are around 4.50 million X (previously Twitter) users in Pakistan in early 2024with 80% male and 20% female users. X is not as popular as Facebook in Pakistan, yet its popularity is increasing every day and more and more prominent figures are using X to express their ideas online. Other popular social media platforms in Pakistan include Tik Tok with 54.38 million users, Instagram 17.30 million, Snapchat with 30.21 million users, and LinkedIn with 12 million users in January 2024 (Kemp, 2024).

Religious Extremism has been on the rise in Pakistan for almost half a century now, especially with a significant upsurge after 2000 (Arshad, 2023). According to United States International Commission on International Religious Freedom, Pakistan is ranked amongst the worst countries in the religious freedom index in the world. Pakistan was placed on the list of "Countries of particular concern (CPCs) by the USCIRF in 2024 (United State Commission International Religious Freedom [USCIRF], 2024). This becomes even more crucial considering that 96.28 % of the Pakistani population consists of Muslims amongst whom 87% identify as true practicing Muslims (PBS Census, 2023) This phenomenon had a huge impact on the social fabric of Pakistan as how people behaved in terms of their religious beliefs, especially after the advent of social media in the country.

As per Data Reportal 2024, 71.70 million Pakistanis actively use social media daily primarily for their political, social, and religious interactions. Facebook with more than 44.5 users is the most popular and most frequently used platform in the country. Multiple recent studies show that Facebook has been used for spreading hate speech, religiously extremist views, and questionable content to further the violent agendas of certain sections of society (Hasangani, 2022). Considering the recent acts of religious extremism such as Sialkot lynching case, Jaranwala blasphemy case etc. either initiated or fueled by the social media campaigns in Pakistan, this becomes even more important to understand.

Despite the growing concern about the role of social media in the promoting religious extremism, there is a lack of empirical research on the specific ways in which Facebook usage influences the beliefs of its users.

Thus, the aim of this study is to understand the relationship between Facebook usage and its effects on religious extremism among its users in Pakistan. Collecting quantitative data from active Facebook users across the country through a nationwide survey is an attempt to understand the relationship between Facebook usage and religious extremism. The study is expected to serve as a significant addition to the existing literature in order to understand the crucial phenomenon of social media's effects on religious behaviors in Pakistan.

Hypotheses of the Study

H₁. Facebook usage is positively related to the higher level of sectarianism.

H_2. Facebook usage is positively related to the higher level of hate speech.

H_3. Facebook usage is positively related to the higher level of radicalization.

Figure 1

Conceptual Framework

Literature Review

Social media through its ability to connect a wide audience in cheaper, faster, and restraint-free mechanisms has become a central part of modern-day communication patterns involving all walks of life. Social media has enabled its users to create content making them proactive members of this structure rather than just being the audience which makes it even more powerful (Lietsala & Sirkkunen, 2008).

Social Media and Religious Extremism

Religious extremism is the exaggeration, abundance, or lack of moderate views, intolerance regarding diversity in religious opinions, or using force or fanatic behavior either in words or actions in any religious thought. (Al-Shamsi, 2019).

Many scholars have defined religious extremism and multidimensional ideas relating to this concept in various ways. Radicalism or extremism (Kruglanski et al., 2018; Simon et al., 2013; Webber et al., 2017) and religious fundamentalism (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992; Liht et al., 2011; Williamson, 2010), have been used by scholars in synonymous ways. However, many believed that there is a difference between these ideas where being fundamentalist means to be a rigid interpreter of ideas and extremism is usually associated with political ideas.

The extremists have repeatedly been attributed as certain groups fighting for their own political as well as ideological agendas against the widely accepted mainstream systems in the world such as ISIS in Syria and Iraq (Wibisono et al., 2019). Silber and Bhatt (2007) also presented a model to explain religious extremism as turning extreme religious ideologies and ideas into violence against people.

Religious extremism can take many forms and shapes and can be triggered through various seemingly normal behaviors. Violent extremism can be mapped through attributes ranging from attitudes and emotions to certain beliefs and behaviors of individuals (Baruch et al., 2018).

Pakistan since its inception has been fighting this menace of extremism in its quest to become a moderate Islamic state (Abbas, 2021). Pakistan is among the top 5 major states that have been highly affected by extremism globally (Global Terrorism Index, 2023). Pakistan through its various phases of political and military rule has been fighting the devil of extremism.

These extremists have been hurting Pakistan in marinating relations with other nations, national integration as well as economic stability (Abbas, 2021).

Islam discourages any kind of distinction or discrimination based on gender, race, color, or nationality (Chahudhry, 1993). It directs its followers to be moderate in their lifestyles and avoid extremes. Even in matters of religion, there is no compulsion in Islam (Holy Quran 2: 256).

Social Media's enormous influence on youth empowers it to shape their mindsets on a mass scale. Youngsters who spend excessive amounts of time on social media are more prone to social media's effect. The sociopolitical behaviors of youth and their actions are mostly shaped by their responses to social media's content and popular views presented on it (Siddiqa-Agha, 2010).

The double-edged sword of social media has also created a constant trouble for law enforcement agencies and governments across the globe in countering the presence of online extremist content and real-time planning of creating civil unrest. This has resulted in a swift tilt by social media towards the dark side of information dissemination to promote hate speech, extremist ideas through fake news, and intergroup conflict (Lovink, 2013; Morozov, 2012) giving governments a justification to scrutinize tight control over previously constraint-free media and legitimizing their acts for national security and community safety (Amoore & Goede, 2008).

Social Media and Hate Speech

A problematic yet highly prevalent form of religious extremism is hate speech. Hate speech can be defined as any type of speech, in whole or in part, to harm a specific group of people with an offense motivated approach by the offender. In this broader understanding, hate speech has a wide scope and can be instigated by many factors such as race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, gender, ethnicity, and even physical characteristics (Silva et al., 2016)

Hate speech is also defined as any statement that is designed or intended to defame or harm another person using inferior language and curial or hurtful words (Hamidu, 2019).

Over time, technological advancement is intensifying the new forms of hate and online bullying and abuse (Naz et al., 2021). The power of online or social media helps its users to remain hidden while expressing hate speech against anyone whom they disagree with (Durrani et al., 2021). Such hate speech can be used to target, dehumanize or degrade its victims online, both individually and in groups (Cohen, 2011).

Furthermore, it may also be categorized as dangerous speech, that is a speech that can result in physical violence (Brubaker & Cooper, 2000), or fear speech, that is a speech that can induce feelings of fear (Buyse, 2014). Such categories can help understand the underlying conditions for hate speech and can help society to act when there is a need to encounter such hate speech (Pohjonen & Udupa, 2017).

A social media message can be termed as offensive if it attacks a minority, includes racial slurs, tries to silence a minority or certain group, promotes offensive and hate content, or even shows support to distasteful and offensive materials (Waseem & Hovy, 2016).

Major Social media giants such as Facebook and X defined Hate speech as "content that attacks people based on their actual or perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or disease". In many ways, it is a very comprehensive definition of hate speech and is a quote close to the legal definition of creating or sharing any content targeting individuals or groups because of any characteristics they share (Saleem et al., 2017).

Studies have shown that spending more time online, particularly on social media and expressing more political ideas with close online friends results in more vulnerability and chances of being a victim of online hate which further induces many negative outcomes for the individuals (Costello et al., 2018).

Keeping in view the interactive nature of social media, a variety of studies have been conducted to investigate the contents of abusive or offensive language used on social media (Badjatiya et al., 2017).

This online hate and abuse have a massive impact on the social, mental, and psychological health of the society. Various studies have proven the damaging effects of social media hate speech on society in various ways the trend is increasing day by day (Charitidis et al., 2020).

The effects of online hate speech through social media are manifold. Online Hate speech marginalizes and dehumanizes the communities and it is a historical fact that discriminated, marginalized, and dehumanized communities are more and frequent targets of insult, prejudice, offense, and often violence (Cotik et al., 2020).

Many surveys have concluded that online hate speech has strong offline consequences on both individuals and groups. There exists a strong relationship between online hate speech and hate crime in society as well (Del Vigna, et al., 2017).

Social Media and Radicalization

Radicalization is an extreme and advanced stage of extremism. Religious radicalization makes it an even more lethal form of extremism. Radicalization can be defined as a gradual and refined long-term process of persuasion occurring over time (Kursuncu et al., 2019).

Digital media has been playing a significant role in expanding the horizons for the extremists to propagate, recruit and connect these like-minded extremists which result in the radicalization of the society (Mueller, 2010).

A previous research shows that social media can work as a channel for radicalization in the following three (3) ways. First, it can be sued to illustrate and reinforce the ideas of extremism. Second, it can be used to create an easy pathway for like-minded hate mongers or form hate networks, and third, it normalizes the otherwise unacceptable hate speech in society (Denoeux & Carter, 2009; Hassan et al., 2020)

It is important to encounter radicalization through careful digital strategy and mechanism as encountering such hate material can cause emotional harm (Lee & Leets, 2002; Leets, 2002; Tynes, 2006) and increase the risks of violent engagement (Foxman & Wolf, 2013).

Social Media and Sectarianism in Pakistan

A sect is a group or body of people who subscribe to a divergent or different path from other groups of the same religion (New Oxford dictionary). Mariam Webster Dictionary defines sectarianism as a narrow, bigoted, or limited scope or character which generally uses some sort of discrimination or prejudice from belonging to a particular group or sect where an individual considers himself superior from other groups. These sects are generally associated with religious, political, or ethnic groups (Malik, 2020).

This sectarian violence in Pakistan is usually referred to as the famous majority Sunni and minority Shia sects of the country. There have also been various cases of sectarian violence among two major Hanafi groups, namely Barelvis and Deobandis over the years (Azad & Haidar, 2021).

The Sunni Shia sectarian violence has been the most lethal and brutal sectarian conflict in Pakistan for the last 30 years with disproportionate consequences for the Shia minority (Kalin & Siddiqui, 2014). State funding of major Sunni groups by Saudi Arabia and Shias by Iran in the regions is also a major element of conflict between the two groups (Fernandez & Farkas, 2021).

As per the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Sunnis make up for 76.5 % of the Pakistani Muslim population whereas Shia is the second biggest group with around 15 % Population as per the 2017 census of Pakistan.

At the time of independence, the non-Muslim minority was about 23% of Pakistan which has now been reduced to a mere 3.7% due to extreme discrimination, separation of Bangladesh, intimidation, and occasionally forced conversions (Manchanda, 2009). As per Census 2017, the Muslim population of Pakistan is 96.47% with less than 4 % minorities in Pakistan Sookhdeo (2002) which is not very different from census 2023.

Unfortunately, Sectarian violence has taken on new and dangerous forms in recent times. Barelvis were considered to be the soft and moderate group (Modha et al., 2020). They have now transformed into a major intolerant group in recent times especially after the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri and the emergence of the new right-wing extremist religious political party Tehreek e Labaik Pakistan which is a visibly violent and extremist Barelvi group (Khan & Uzzaman, 2020).

The media's role in spreading sectarian hate and calling for minorities' persecution has been massively negative in Pakistan. A famous anchor of the religious program aired on 30^th September, which called for the killing of Ahmadis in the name of Islam and within 48 hours two Ahmadis were shot dead after that program.

Theoretical Framework

The theoretical foundations and framework for this study are based on the Cultivation Theory.

The Cultivation Theory

Cultivation Theory, also known as cultivation hypothesis or cultivation analysis was first proposed by George Gerbner in 1976. The theory is thoroughly effects-centric and proposes that TV viewing has long-term effects on the thinking patterns, ideas, and perceptions of its viewers which can be small, gradual, indirect but significant and cumulative (Morgan et al., 2014) stated that cultivation is a method of assessing the impact of TV on our beliefs and behaviors.

Social Media and Cultivation

Although cultivation theory was initially proposed for TV effects yet there have been numerous studies that prove the existence of cultivation effects on new media including social media. For Facebook, a similar synthetic world appears as TV and it is therefore quite logical to find a similar cultivation effect on Facebook as well. Whatever is posted on social media generates public debate and forms public opinion which makes it logical to fall into the cultivation analysis domain (Nevzat, 2018)

As TV, all social media sites are storytelling platforms just like TV. So even in the age of YouTube, Facebook or Instagram cultivation by Gerbner will persist as long as the storytelling genres are there (Morgan et al., 2014).

Although being published 6 decades ago, the Cultivation theory is still among the most cited and used theoretical frameworks in the world. There have been more than 1500 studies citing cultivation theory after the year 2000 which was predominantly the era of new media. This shows the enormous ability of cultivation theory to adapt to the changing media landscape (Mosharafa & Eman, 2015).

Several findings have been supportive of the fact that social media, specifically Facebook support the cultivating effects on its users globally in terms of varying variables. (Tsay-Vogel et al., 2018).

Research Methodology

Research Design

A comprehensive quantitative research design has been used to test the research hypotheses at hand.

Sample Size

Survey data has been collected from a nationwide purposively selected sample of 1250 Facebook users from the provincial capitals of Punjab, Sindh, KPK, Baluchistan and Federal Capital of Islamabad.

Sampling Technique and Frame

To ensure the maximum generalizability and proper representation of the whole population a systematic sampling technique was used to collect data. The data was gathered from five (05) major public sector universities and their affiliated schools and colleges where every 2^nd student was selected in the sample form schools and colleges and every 3^rd student were opted from the selected universities. The institutions were chosen on the criterion based on the academic assumptions of maximum diversity and representation of the whole Pakistani population. The sample also provided sufficient diversity of level of education and financial status which are important variables of the current study.

Data Collection Method

The semi-structured survey method was used to collect the data. This method helped to comprehensively answer the quantitative aspects of the study and to justify the findings with empirical data. A well-published valid questionnaire tool was redesigned with certain modifications to gauge the increasing religious extremism due to the usage of social media.

Data Collection Tool

In order to measure the meaningful Facebook usage by the respondents, the Facebook intensity scale by Nicole. B Ellison was used (Ellison et al., 2011). Ellison's Facebook intensity scale is the most cited tool to gauge the meaningful usage of Facebook by its respondents.

Similarly, to measure the level of religious extremism, a comprehensive tool inspired by the tool of religious fundamentalism by Altemeyer and Hunsberger (2004), with certain modifications and updates as per the Pakistani socio- religious landscape was used.

Results

Descriptive Data

Table 1

Demographic Profile of Survey Respondents

Measurement Model

The evaluation of the measurement model is used to assess the quality of the study's constructs. The factor loadings are evaluated first, and then construct reliability and construct validity are established.

Reliability and Validity of the Tool

Reliability

Reliability means the accuracy of the measurement scores of your tool and how accurately they can be reproduced with repeated measurements (Dillon et al.,1994).

Indicator Reliability

To determine the measurement model's indicator reliability, the loadings of the items are examined. When the loading estimates for each item are higher than 0.5 to 0.7, a measurement model has a satisfactory indicator reliability (Hair et al., 2021).

The Table 2 shows that all of the items in this measurement model had loadings generally greater than 0.5 as a result, the indicator reliability of this study is satisfactory.

Factor Loading

The extent to which each of the items in the correlation matrix correlates with the given principal component is the term used to describe factor loading. Higher the absolute values indicate a higher correlation of the item with the underlying factor (Pett et al., 2003). Factor loadings can range from -1.0 to +1.0. None of the items in this study are in the range of less than recommended factor loading value of .50, and no items have been removed. The factor loading results have been presented below in the Table 2.

Table 2

Factor Loadings for the Facebook Usage and Religious Extremism Questionnaire

Note. FBU = Facebook Usage, HS = Hate Speech, ST = Sectarianism, RD = Radicalization

The reliability test showed that these measurements demonstrated adequate levels of internal consistent reliability with alpha values well above the suggested cut-off of .70

Construct Validity

In statistical Analysis, Construct Validity is established is established when both convergent and discriminant validities are formed.

Convergent Validity

Convergent validity is the degree to which different approaches for measuring the same idea are in agreement. The idea is that if two or more measures of the same thing are valid measures of the concept, they should very significantly overly (Bagozzi et al., 1991). If the AVE (Average Variance Extracted) value is greater than or equal to the recommended value of .50, convergent validity is established. This signifies that items are converging to measure the underlying constructs significantly (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). The Table below shows that average variance scores of all the constructs in this study were greater than the recommended value of .50. Hence convergent validity was achieved in this study. Table 3 shows AVE variance of each of the constructs.

Table 3

Construct Convergent Validity

Hypotheses Verification

H₁. Facebook usage is positively related to the higher level of sectarianism.

To test the H_1, Simple Linear Regression was computed. The hypothesis tests if Facebook Usage, carries as significant impact on Sectarianism. The dependent variable that is Sectarianism was regressed on the predicting variable Facebook Usage to test the hypothesis H₁.

Facebook Usage significantly predicted sectarianism among Facebook users, F = 27.977, p < 0.001, which indicates that the Facebook Usage can play a significant role in instilling Sectarianism (β = .160, p <.001). These results clearly direct the positive affect of the Facebook Usage on Sectarianism. Moreover, the R² =. .026 depicts that the model explains 26 % of the variance in sectarianism is due to Facebook usage.

Table 4 shows the summary of the findings

Table 4

Predicting the Sectarianism with Facebook Usage

Note. N = 1062

Figure 2

Linear Regression Analysis of Facebook Usage and Sectarianism

The graph represents the linear regression model for predicting sectarianism with Facebook Usage. The red points represent the data points, and the orange line represents the regression line based on the slope and intercept provided in the table.

H₂. Facebook usage is positively related to the higher level of hate speech.

To test the H₂, Simple Linear Regression was computed. The hypothesis tests if Facebook Usage, carries as significant impact on Hate Speech of Facebook users. The dependent variable Hate Speech was regressed on the predicting variable that is Facebook Usage to test the hypothesis H₂.

Facebook Usage significantly predicted Hate Speech, F = 718.243, p < 0.000, which indicates that the Facebook Usage can play a significant role in instilling Religious Extremism (β = .636, p <.000). These results clearly direct the positive affect of the Facebook Usage on Hate Speech. Moreover, the R² = .404 depicts that the model explains 40 % of the variance in Hate Speech is due to Facebook usage.

Table 5 shows the summary of the findings.

Table 5

Predicting the Hate Speech with Facebook Usage

Note. N = 1062

Figure 3

Linear Regression Analysis of Facebook Usage and Hate Speech

The graph represents the linear regression model for predicting hate speech with Facebook Usage. The blue points represent the data points, and the orange line represents the regression line based on the slope and intercept provided in the table.

H₃. Facebook usage is positively related to the higher level of radicalization.

To test the H₃, Simple Linear Regression was computed. The hypothesis tests if Facebook Usage, carries as significant impact on radicalization. The dependent variable that is radicalization was regressed on the predicting variable Facebook Usage to test the hypothesis H₃.

Facebook Usage significantly predicted radicalization among Facebook users, F = 296.104, p < 0.001, which indicates that the Facebook Usage can play a significant role in instilling radicalization (β =. 467, p <.001). These results clearly direct the positive affect of the Facebook Usage on radicalization. Moreover, the R² =. .218 depicts that the model explains 21 % of the variance in radicalization due to Facebook usage.

Table 6 shows the summary of the findings

Table 6

Predicting the Radicalization with Facebook Usage

Note. N = 1062

Figure 4

Linear Regression Analysis of Facebook Usage and Radicalization

The graph represents the linear regression model for predicting radicalization with Facebook Usage. The green points represent the data points, and the orange line represents the regression line based on the slope and intercept provided in the table.

Discussion

The first hypothesis of this study deals with the effects of social media usage on the overall scores of religious extremism among its users across Pakistan. Religious extremism or extreme religious ideas with no tolerance for any opposing ideas that usually lead to radicalized incidents can be expressed in many ways as clear from the literature (Dwiningrum, 2023). For this study, the construct of religious extremism has been built with three major concepts that is hate speech, radicalization, and sectarianism. The investigation supports the H₁ as the findings in shown in Table 4 proves that Facebook usage is positively related to the higher levels of religious extremism among its users in Pakistan (β = .520, p <.001). Moreover, the R²= .270 clearly explains a 27 % variance in religious extremism due to Facebook usage in Pakistan which is a significant value.

The findings strengthen the pre-established idea of higher levels of social media usage on behavioral change in its audience (Mahoney & Tang, 2024). The regular and higher levels of Facebook usage do have a significant impact on the mindset and thought process of the users who are exposed to it for longer periods (Omar & Casero-Ripolles, 2023). The mediated ideas constructed by social media can play an important role in shaping, reshaping, and strengthening the socio-psychological ideas among its users (Feng & Luo, 2023).

The results of H₁ confirm the significant effects of social media usage on religiously extreme ideas among the users (Ghafar & Rashid, 2024). The findings highlight that excessive usage of social media and exposure to a certain type of religious agenda and content can lead to an amplified level of religious extremism among social media users (Pauwels et al., 2018). The findings also confirmed that the higher levels of social media usage of religious content may lead to violent and extremist ideas in the minds of its users (Khan et al., 2023).

Several authors have confirmed that social media's exposure to religiously violent or igniting content can lead to active acts of violence or radicalization (Akers & Silverman, 2004).

These findings also confirmed the theoretical foundations of cultivation theory that exposure to certain content for an extended period of time may lead to believing the mediated realities presented there (Hermann et al., 2023).

The current research highlighted a complex and much more sophisticated relationship dynamics between social media usage and its effects on human behavior, in this case, the levels of religious extremism in the presence of various moderating and mediating variables as predicted by the cultivation theory are explored (Tylka et al., 2023). The findings suggested that there is a strong causal relationship between exposure to extremist elements and religious aggression (Akers & Silverman, 2004).

Youngsters spending excessive amounts of time on social media are more prone to its effects. The sociopolitical behaviors of youth and their actions are mostly shaped by their responses to social media's content and popular views presented on it (Siddiqa-Agha, 2010). This mediated effect may lead to the committing of an actual act of religious extremism as a strong causal relationship is found between such exposure and the actual commitment of the offense (Akers & Silverman, 2004). Therefore, the results confirmed this relationship as explained in cultivation theory as well as in the social cognitive model (Bandura, 1990).

One of the most significant ideas to understand is the social media's feature of anonymity and the vastness of this domain which Makes this plague of hate speech even more dangerous (Lapidot-Lefler & Barak, 2012). The findings of the study also Strengthen the idea that a majority or significant part of the majority of Facebook users have been exposed to some sort of hate speech regularly, focused mainly on their ethnic, physical, or religious orientation and this phenomenon is even more prevalent in the younger generation (Winiewski et al., 2017).

Conclusion

The study explores the correlation between Facebook usage and its ability to cultivate religious extremism among its users affecting them in real life. It hypothesizes that increased interaction on Facebook can amplify extremist views due to its unique communication dynamics and algorithms.

The study employs a quantitative approach, while combining quantitative data analysis with structural equation modeling to test the given hypotheses. The findings show a significant and positive relationship between Facebook usage and religious extremism among Facebook users.

The study concludes that Facebook usage and social dynamics such a financial status and real life extremism, can inadvertently facilitate the expression and spread of religious extremism among its users. The study calls for a multi-faceted approach involving policy changes, improved content moderation, Better education system, mitigating financial stress and enhancing user education to address this issue effectively.

Recommendations

In light of the findings of the study, following recommendations can be made.

1. The findings suggest the need for comprehensive regulations on social media platforms to mitigate the spread of extremist content. Platforms should enhance their content moderation policies and employ advanced algorithms to detect and limit the reach of extremist posts.
2. Promoting counter-narratives and diverse perspectives within these online communities can help reduce polarization.
3. Encouraging critical thinking and media literacy among users can also combat confirmation bias.
4. Social media is a reflection of society. People get highly affected by the real-life incidents and then translate that anger and frustration into virtual and online extremist ideas. Society in general must be transformed into a more cohesive and less extremist environment.
5. Strict regulations and checks must be employed to counter eco chambers and mainstreaming groups formed to spread religious violence online.
6. Hate speech, sectarianism, and radicalization must be combated on societal level in the country.

Religious groups and schools of thought must be regulated and under strict observation and the impact of excessive religious affiliation with certain groups and its transformation of it into religious hate among its users must also be monitored.

Conflict of Interest

The author of the manuscript has no financial or non-financial conflict of interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

Data Availability Statement

The data associated with this study will be provided by the corresponding author upon request.