EU police agency Europol has led an international cyber operation to shut Islamic State group’s “propaganda machine” down. The action was led by European, Canadian and American cyber specialists and coordinated by the European Union Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU) and the European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC).
Among the targeted online propaganda main sources, there is Amaq, the IS’ News Agency, which has been releasing information about the terrorist group and claiming credits for the attacks since its founding in 2014. Along with IS’ mouthpiece, the new Europol action has also targeted other major IS-branded media outlets like Al-Bayan radio, Halumu and Nashir news.
According to Rob Wainwright, Europol’s head, the joint action countering online extremist propaganda, “has punched a big hole in the capability of IS to spread propaganda online and radicalise young people in Europe.” The Europol’s Head also added: “I applaud the determined and innovative work by Europol and its partners to target a major part of the international terrorist threat prevalent in Europe today.”
The UK, along with France, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Canada and the US, is involved in the cyber operation following former Europol efforts aiming to prevent Amaq News Agency from sharing online material related to terrorism. Indeed, the IS’ new agency was already cyber-attacked by EU Member States and non-EU countries in 2016, a take-down action which hindered its mobile application and web infrastructure, and later in 2017 and 2018.
The former strikes often brought Amaq to reinforce its infrastructure not to undergo further hits, but also contributed to the identification of radical people in 100 countries, which is still one of the main aims of this new operation.
“Daesh is no longer just losing territory on the ground, but also online.” said Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos. “We will not stop until their propaganda is entirely eradicated from the Internet.”