On Thursday, the EU's law enforcement agency Europol declared the opening of an investigation into Daesh efforts to set up its own social network.
"We are investigating the possibility that IS [Daesh] and other terror groups are setting up a social media platform. We are still working on identifying the full details of the account, including who has set it up and for what purpose," Europol communications officer Jan Op Gen Oorth told AFP.
The announcement came after an operation last week by Interpol and officers across Europe and the US, who identified more than 2,000 items of terrorist propaganda posted online by Daesh and al-Qaeda affiliated media outlets. They referred the content to online service providers for removal, the agency stated.
Lars Hilse, digital strategy consultant and expert on cyber terrorism told Radio Sputnik that terrorist groups are using the internet for marketing purposes.
"As devious as this may sound in the context, it's about relaying a message and the message can be done as corporations do, through the internet as well, so they resort to essentially doing the same things as the aforementioned corporations are doing. [That is,] spreading the message and attracting new people to their message."
"The only problem is, of course, if you take instruments like this which are traceable and trackable on the so-called clear web, if you, by destroying those structures force the people underground, you have the next level of problems which essentially will arise because if they go underground they're going to be untraceable," Hilse said.
The expert warned that the same goes for terrorist financing – although police hope that a cashless society of digital transfers will help them to track transactions, it could result in an underground, alternative means of "truly anonymous" asset transfers.
Hilse said that law enforcement agencies are doing a good job of reacting to criminals' technological developments, but they will always be on the back foot because of the nature of the internet, a tool that can be used in myriad ways.
"You can use your kitchen knife to cut a tomato, you can use your kitchen knife to cut somebody's throat, and the same applies for the web. The advancement which we've seen in that in the last couple of years is tremendous and it's been a relief for really a large part of society, but there's always a downside to the same instrument that you're looking at and the same applies here."
"You could be using something as simple as email to conspire to commit a terrorist attack and at the end of the day, you can't outlaw email, it's just impossible, the internet has become too much the backbone of society to be able to shut it down," Hilse said.
"I think there is no real possibility to fend off evil elements doing illegal stuff with an instrument that was designed for good. It's something that we have to become accustomed to and law enforcement is doing a good job trying to keep control of it."
"The only problem is that you need a certain amount of money and the personnel to keep hold of it. I think that is the problem we are facing, that Europol may be outnumbered and outgunned by these guys and that's why they're probably one step ahead of the game and putting Europol into a reactionary position which it always will be in."
Have you heard the news? Sign up to our Telegram channel and we'll keep you up to speed!
