Jihadist’s social media terror network is the ‘most significant challenge’ to Europe’s security
Jihadis are sending up to 100,000 Twitter messages a day to plot terrorism, Europe’s police chief has warned.
In a chilling account of how IS is exploiting technology, Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol and ex-MI5 officer, urged social media firms to help authorities stem the terrorist threat, saying that encrypted communications were the ‘most significant challenge’ to tackling terrorism.
IS is known to use encrypted tweets to recruit fighters and ‘jihadi brides’, including the three British girls who fled to Syria earlier this year.
Saying that IS has 50,000 Twitter accounts, Mr Wainwright told a BBC radio investigation: ‘We’ve built our counter-terrorist capability in recent years very much on the basis of being able to monitor their communications.
‘As the communications of terrorist networks and criminal groups have moved increasingly [online], it’s opened up a whole new wave of problems for us even in the open internet, let alone the Darknet.’
His comments follow a report last year into the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby, which found that Facebook had failed to pass on information that could have prevented his death. (Daily Mail)