EU to target internet as part of counter-radicalization plan

BRUSSELS – The European Union plans to target the internet in its efforts to try to stop young people developing extremist views.

Interior Affairs Commissioner Dmitris Avramopoulos said Tuesday that the internet is “our most important battleground” against radicalization.

He said, “The recent attack in Orlando perfectly demonstrated (that) the perpetrator was strongly radicalized on his own, purely by using the internet.”

Avramopoulos said the EU Commission will in coming months propose measures to improve co-operation between countries, police agencies and industry and to counter terrorist propaganda.

The aim is to combat the spread of material inciting violence, create a database of “terrorist content” deleted from websites and help educate people to be more critical when reading information online.