Europol hosts Conference on Online Terrorist Propaganda

On 10 and 11 April 2017, Europol’s European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC) hosted its first high-level Conference on Online Terrorist Propaganda. On this occasion, over 150 participants gathered at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague to discuss a wide variety of topics pertaining to the online terrorist threat.

Participants included members of the ECTC Advisory Group on Terrorist Propaganda, representatives of the EU Commission and EU Council, academia and law enforcement practitioners from Europe and the US.

Terrorist groups, such as the so-called Islamic State (IS), owe largely their success to their well-planned and implemented strategy on the internet. Their virtual footprint will remain on the internet for the foreseeable future as a result of the massive production of slickly-edited content accumulated over the past years. Tackling this challenge remains at the forefront of the EU’s counter- terrorism efforts and can only be achieved through a coordinated and systematic action bringing together law enforcement, public institutions and the private sector.