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France secretly fights jihadism on Facebook

The Local France
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France secretly fights jihadism on Facebook
Photo: Maria Elena/Flickr

For the past year the French army has been secretly fighting jihadism online through the infiltration of social networks, French media has revealed.

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Around 50 military experts in France are currently employed by the army to monitor jihadist activity on social networks, Europe 1 radio reported on Wednesday.
 
The team is primarily focused on the sites Facebook and Twitter, which are notoriously exploited by jihadists to recruit new members and circulate propaganda.
 
Using fake identities to infiltrate jihadist networks, the Lyon-based team attempts to dissuade new recruits. If this fails then they arrest them.
 
The news comes days after the British army announced that it would form a 77th Brigade of around 1,500 soldiers tasked with “controlling the narrative” across social media sites. 
 
Since the Paris terror attacks last month in which 17 people were killed, the government has unveiled a series of anti-terror measures, including the site Stop-Djhihadisme.   
 
In the latest propaganda video circulated by Isis (Islamic State of Syria and Iraq) on the web, a Jordanian pilot is shown being burned alive in a cage.
 
 

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