Europol web unit formed to block extremists on social media

A new Europe wide police team is being formed to scour the internet for leaders behind Islamic State’s (IS) social media presence, which is being used to recruit foreign fighters.

It is believed that there are at least 46,000 twitter accounts linked to IS, sending out approximately 100,000 tweets a day. Europol believe up to 5,000 EU citizens have travelled to territories controlled by IS, including 700 britons who have travelled to Syria and Iraq.

The new police unit will start work on 1 July and aims to take down IS held accounts within two hours of them being detected. The internet referral unit will monitor social media output and identify people who may be vulnerable, as well as those targeting and trying to recruit them.

Europol’s director Rob Wainwright said: "We will have to combine what we see online, with our own intelligence and that that is shared with us by European police services, so we can be a bit more targeted and identify who the key user accounts are... and concentrate on closing them down."

In a recent speech, the home secretary Theresa May stressed the importance of cross boarder cooperation to tackle the threat of IS. She said: “The threat… that we face is a common one shared by many of your countries. And if we are to defeat it, we need to work together.

“We have also supported the EU in setting up an internet-referral unit at Europol to address the increasing amount of terrorist and extremist propaganda available on the internet, and I am pleased to say the UK will be seconding a police officer to this unit.”