Federal police unit shuts down radical social media accounts

Belgium's federal police has closed 241 Twitter and Facebook accounts since the establishment of its new Internet Referral Unit (IRU) less than a year ago, says interior minister Jan Jambon in Het Laatste Nieuws and the Sudpresse newspapers.

Launched by the European Police Office (Europol) in 2015 to combat terrorist propaganda and related violent extremist activities on the internet, the IRU tracks radical messages online and shuts down accounts where necessary.

According to minister Jambon the accounts that were closed “glorified terrorism, threatened new attacks, and spread messages of hate”.