THE HAGUE, April 27 (Xinhua) -- A joint operation by European and U.S. law enforcement has hit the propaganda machine of the Islamic State (IS) and hindered the terrorist group's capacity to spread radicalization online, Europol said on Friday.
"With this ground-breaking operation we have punched a big hole in the capability of IS to spread propaganda online and radicalize young people in Europe. 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," said Rob Wainwright, Executive Director of Europol.
The case started at the end of 2015 when Europol informed all EU member states about the rise of the Amaq News Agency and the technical resilience of the terrorist online infrastructure.
Initially giving the impression of an independent media outlet, but providing factual information on IS, Amaq was used in 2016 to claim the attacks in the Levant and all over the world, including the attacks in Paris, Brussels, Barcelona and Berlin, and more recently in Trebes (France).
Amaq News Agency was officially endorsed by the terrorist organisation in July 2017 and has since become the primary source of information regarding the remaining activities of IS worldwide, according to Europol.
Since 2015 Amaq News Agency has been launching its own software and has developed highly resilient online infrastructure hosting. As of December 2017, the entire range of IS propaganda is available in at least nine different languages, as well as a wide range of online services, such as mailed newsletters and add-on extensions for the most common browsers.
In August 2016, a first takedown was launched against Amaq's mobile application and web infrastructure. This action forced the propagandists to build a more complex and secure infrastructure to prevent further disruption from law enforcement.
In June 2017, a second strike targeted part of the news agency's web assets and infrastructure. The servers seized allowed for the identification of radicalized individuals in more than 100 countries worldwide.
On April 25-26, 2018, a simultaneous multinational takedown led to the seizure of digital evidence by law enforcement from Bulgaria, France, Romania, and the seizure of IS servers in the Netherlands, Canada and the USA. Meanwhile, Britain took the lead in the referral process of top-level domain registrars abused by IS.
With the action targeting major IS-branded media outlets like Amaq, IS' capability to broadcast and spread terrorist material has been compromised.
Law enforcement agencies involved expect that the data retrieved as a result of the takedown will help to identify the administrators behind IS media outlets and potentially radicalised individuals on European soil and beyond, said Europol.
