By Camille Antunes
Online platforms and social media channels have given new opportunities for terrorists to reach more audiences, significantly enhancing their ability to radicalise and recruit. As a result, online monitoring has become vital to prevent the dissemination of violent extremist and terrorist content online that can contribute to radicalisation, and counter-terrorism operations.
As stated in the Europol European Counterterrorism Centre (ECTC) Blueprint, the EU Internet Referral Unity (EU IRU) – which is located in The Hague in The Netherlands – acts as a service for all EU Member States, to help reduce terrorist propaganda content on the Internet and support internet investigations, while building partnerships with the public and private sectors. Originally focusing on jihadism, the unit has widened its scope to also cover Violent Right Wing Extremism (VRWE) and terrorism since October 2021.
The EU IRU flagship capabilities include the Check the Web (CtW) collection and the Referral Action Days (RADs): The Check the Web (CtW) portal is an electronic reference library of jihadist and Violent Right Wing Extremist online propaganda. It contains original statements, publications, videos and audios produced by terrorist groups or their supporters. EU Member States can access this content, and analysis of it, via Europol’s secure network. CtW helps EU Member States to identify new media, content, groups, threats, trends and patterns. Its goal is to improve the EU intelligence picture on the Modus Operandi of online terrorist propagandists and online counter terrorism (CT) challenges in EU Member States and beyond.
In order to ensure the effectiveness of the collection, analysis and disruption of online propaganda, the EU IRU has built dedicated databases (DBs) for different online platforms and designed an analytical capability that can:
– assess the propaganda dissemination flow;
– collect the identifiers linked to terrorist content creation and
dissemination;
– analyse the network(s) linked to these identifiers,
– secure the identified selectors for further judicial purposes,
– provide a strategic assessment of content dissemination
processes.
In parallel, the EU IRU has developed a referral capability able to adapt to a constantly changing landscape and fast technological
developments. EU IRU experts coordinate referral activities and knowledge sharing, by flagging terrorist and violent extremist content online to Online Services Providers (OSPs) for voluntary assessment against their terms of services.
Referrals to Online Services Providers are made following requests received from EU Member States and as a result of Open Source Scanning by the EU IRU. A referral activity does not constitute an enforceable act. Thus, the decision and removal of the referred terrorist and extremist online content is taken by the concerned OSP under their own responsibility and accountability. Apart from daily referral, the unit organises Referral Action Days (RADs) with EU Member States, Third Parties and tech companies. These are intensive referral campaigns, focusing on a theme, a specific content on a specific platform or high profile content relayed by high profile accounts (i.e. terrorist attacks or resilient networks abusing platform specific features).
Since the establishment of the unit in July 2015 content has been located in more than 430 online platforms. As well as sending referrals, the EU IRU also offers support to OSPs to build their capacity against terrorist exploitation. On a regular basis, EU IRU experts share key trends and indicators for OSPs to reinforce their detection and moderation systems.
The EU IRU is also in charge of the EU’s coordinated response to crisis situations suspectedly related to violent extremist and terrorist incidents. The EU Crisis Protocol, endorsed by the EU Internet Forum in October 2019, applies to extraordinary situations where normal operating procedures are insufficient. This voluntary protocol establishes the roles for national Law Enforcement Agencies, OSPs that are members of the EU Internet Forum, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) and other forum members. If activated the EU IRU sets up a 24/7 Coordination Team to support national law enforcement, operational partners and OSPs in content containment, de-confliction and investigation.
“Since the establishment of the unit in July 2015 content has been located in more than 430 online platforms. As well as sending referrals, the EU IRU also offers support to OSPs to build their capacity against terrorist exploitation. On a regular basis, EU IRU experts share key trends and indicators for OSPs to reinforce their detection and moderation systems.”
In this context, the EU IRU has also developed unique expertise in facilitating cross-border access to electronic evidence (e-evidence) and deploying technical support. As e-evidence is at the cornerstone of any counter terrorism (CT) case, the EU IRU has also specialised in the access and analysis of e-evidence from foreign-based OSPs, in the context of criminal investigations. At the end of 2018, the team launched SIRIUS (Shaping Internet Research Investigations Unified System) a platform that, beyond providing investigative capabilities, caters for the need of investigators for comprehensive open-source intelligence (OSINT) best practices and tools.
In 2022, the EU Regulation on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online (TCO Regulation) entered into application. The EU IRU is a key actor in the implementation of the Regulation and has developed an EU Platform on addressing illegal content online (PERCI) to support the implementation of the Regulation. This way, Europol ensures that Hosting Service Providers will receive removal orders from Member States through a common secure channel and detect overlap in case of an ongoing investigation into the same content in other Member States.
Since the establishment of the EU Internet Forum, and even more with the implementation of the Regulation, there is no doubt that the EU IRU has become a key instrument of the EU to counter the promotion and impact of online terrorist activities.
Image Credit: Europol
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