On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a warning that the major source of terrorism in Western nations is far-right ideology.

He stated at a year-end press conference at the UN Headquarters in New York "it has been proved that the biggest terrorism threat today in Western countries comes from the extreme right, neo-Nazism, and white supremacy."

"And I believe that we need to be very clear and very firm in our condemnation of any manifestations of neo-Nazism, white supremacism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Muslim hatred that we are witnessing grow in both Western nations and other areas of the world. There is no doubt that this poses a threat, and we must act decisively to eliminate it "added said.

The far-right coup attempt to overthrow the German government is just one of the examples of the threat to democratic societies around the world, he said.

According to Guterres, social media companies have a special obligation to protect press freedom while also preventing hate speech and other extremist expressions. And I would be more startled if we see threats to press freedom, restrictions on journalists' ability to do their jobs and an increase in hate speech at the same time.

He added that whoever controls any social media platform needs to make sure that hate speech, neo-Nazism, white supremacism, and other types of extremism do not spread through those social platforms and that the freedom of expression be upheld, especially for journalists./agencies