Terrorist group ISIS is known for their heavy use of propaganda, especially the use of social media to distribute their sickening videos and fanciful ideas.
But the end result is the recruitment of impressionable young minds, lured into their dark world by empty promises of freedom and a worthy cause.
France revealed alarming figures on Tuesday the show exactly why French authorities are taking the war against online jihadist networks so seriously.
Newspaper Le Monde found that there are over 2,600 websites in French run by backers of ISIS, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Defense.
ISIS propaganda cells also produce a stunning 40,000 tweets in French each day. That’s a significant amount of reach on a platform with a young and impressionable user base. Especially when considering that the ISIS linked accounts have over 2.8 million Francophone followers.
While France’s response has been considered slow, last week Prime Minister Manuel Valls revealed details of how the French will combat the propaganda machine.
France would be hiring hackers and also online “community managers” to more closely monitor the extremists, Valls revealed.
The hackers would be in charge of monitoring the jihadists online and trying to identify them, allowing police to intercept before they had the chance to covert France’s youth.
The interior minister has also blocked 36 illegal websites in recent months, which have in some way promoted jihadism.
The government also took the step of releasing a shocking video campaign earlier this year in the hope of dissuading more young French nationals from heading to the Middle East.
It’s not surprising that France is taking the jihadist recruitment seriously.
The measures come after it was revealed recently that 45 teenage French girls are waging jihad in the Middle East, while there has been a 203 percent rise in the number of its nationals heading to the region.
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