Over the course of a year, the federal police have intercepted nearly 1,200 jihadist propaganda messages on the Internet. The daily publication, De Morgen, reports on Tuesday that nearly 70% were deleted.
The federal police Internet Referral Unit (known as the “IRU”) started patrolling online a year ago. Since this exercise began, the federal police have intervened some 1,190 times. Of these 943 were for terrorist propaganda and 247 for messages inciting hatred.
In each case upon discovering these messages, the IRU then requests that social media networks and Internet site managers delete the profile of such individuals. In 69% of cases so far, this has been done.
Nevertheless, the service is proving a victim of its own success. This is because increasingly it has to respond to requests from other police units, as part of their investigations.
A new form of software will shortly be available which is supposed to automatically delete web pages linked to such crimes. In the meantime, the IRU are using a Europol software application.
The Brussels Times
