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quietus [soylentnews.org] writes:

European law enforcement has shut down Islamic State's online campaign channels, including Amaq, its official media office.

The operation took place over 4 days, and resulted in the removal of 26,000 items of IS related content -- propaganda videos, publications, and social media accounts.

It involved the cooperation of 9 online service providers, including Telegram, Google, Files.fm, Twitter, Instagram and Dropbox.

Most of the take-down requests were directed at Telegram, pushing a significant portion of key actors within the IS network away from the platform, according to [europa.eu] Europol.

The action is the latest in a series starting in 2016, with a takedown against Amaq's mobile and web infrastructure. Amaq responded by creating a more complex and secure infrastructure.

To little avail: a second strike [europa.eu] in June 2017, with US involvement, allowed for the identification of radicalized individuals in 133 countries, and more than 200 million accesses to Islamic State propaganda, by 52,000 possible sympathizers.

In April 2018, a third attack finally took down all of Islamic State's servers, forcing them to rely exclusively on social media and messaging apps. However, after a relatively short period, IS sites and accounts returned online. This fourth attack, like the former one led by Belgian police, is supposed to disable them for a longer time, and with significant financial costs.

Original Submission