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Referral Action Day targets terrorist content removal

On 2 July, Europol carried out a large-scale Referral Action Day targeting terrorist content online, involving units from Europol’s European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC) and 17 countries.

The referral activity targeted online content intended to inspire, instruct or train how to prepare or commit acts of terrorism. It has been revealed that the action day led to the assessment of 1,906 URLs on 180 platforms and websites while terrorist content was referred to online service providers to be reviewed for breach of their terms and conditions.

During the action day, experts detected, assessed and referred content including manuals and tutorials on how to prepare and carry out terrorist attacks. Some of the referred materials also provided instructions on how to stay anonymous online and how to avoid detection when planning a terrorist attack. The referrals targeted material disseminated in the context of jihadist, right-wing and left-wing terrorism.   

This is the 18th Referral Action Day organised by Europol’s European Union Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU), which was set up in July 2015 to combat terrorist propaganda and related violent extremist activities on the internet.

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