This paper aims to critically deepen the EU measures to counter terrorist use of the Internet and to check their effectiveness. As is well known, the Internet use plays a significant role in the logistic, operational and communication network of terrorist organizations; so, the EU has recognized the need to combat the terrorist use of the Internet in the European Agenda on Security (2015-2020). The EU has adopted the Directive 2017/541, that focuses on the use of the Internet for terrorist purposes. Thus the EU aims at combating terrorism on the Internet by removing public provocation content online and by preventing the self-study through the internet downloading manuals for terrorist offence. So far, the EU response has concentrated on raising critical communication infrastructure resilience standards to prevent potential cyber-attacks (see Directive 2013/40). These efforts were motivated by security concerns regarding acts of cyber-espionage, cyber-crime, and cyber-sabotage rather than hitherto hypothetical attacks of terrorist origin. Furthermore the EU Internet Referral Unit to Combat Terrorist and Violent Extremist Propaganda was established under Europol’s EU Counter Terrorism Centre, as well the EU Internet Forum; and the Europol through its “Check the Web” project is compiling a database of extremist materials found on the Internet, as a resource for police forces.
Keywords: terrorism on the internet, Directive EU 2017/541, public provocation
Daniela Fanciullo (d.fanciullo@gmail.com) & Anna Iermano (anorda@libero.it)
University of Salerno (Italy)