Terrorists and right-wing extremists targeted by Irish authorities in major crackdown

Livestreams, manifestos, claims and celebrations of terrorist attacks were targeted.

Spread out across 34 platforms, authorities from Ireland and 13 other countries trawled the internet for the dangerous content and flagged it with service providers to see how they responded.

The manifestos of many extremists mention how important online communities are to them in recruitment, planning and ‘inspiration’ for future attacks.

On Thursday alone, 804 pieces of content were spotted across the platforms. It was flagged, removed and service providers were asked to re-evaluate how they moderate content.

Irish officers were joined by authorities in Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom in the Europol operation.

Recent terror attacks in Buffalo in the US and Bratislava in Slovakia are a major cause for concern at the European law enforcement agency.

In June, a shooter opened fire on a supermarket in the predominantly black neighbourhood of Buffalo, New York. Ten people were killed in the shocking incident that was partly inspired by the 2019 Christchurch massacre.

References to the shootings in New Zealand mosques that killed 51 people were included in the Buffalo attacker’s manifesto.

It is believed the 19-year-old shooter who killed two people outside a Slovakian gay bar earlier this year was also radicalised online.

“The perpetrators of these attacks were part of transnational online communities and took inspiration from other violent right-wing extremists and terrorists.

"In their manifestos, terrorist actors have highlighted the pivotal role of online propaganda in the radicalisation process,” a Europol spokesperson said.

"This shows how the abuse of the internet continues to be an important aspect of violent right-wing radicalisation and recruitment.”