Terrorists get less financial support on Internet, yet fight not over : UNESCO Official
Paris, May 19 (Sputnik/UNI) Owing to the efforts taken by social media, terrorists receive less financial support via the Internet but the fight against terrorism is not over, the chief of Section for Universal Access and Preservation, Communication and Information Sector at UNESCO told Sputnik.
"Why do extremists use the Internet? There are four main reasons. The first is propaganda, [for example] to show how they decapitate their hostages ... The second is recruiting and communicating with different people in Europe, Africa, Arab countries or around the world. The third is about financing and collecting money. This is a very serious issue. They have a lot of admirers worldwide, and money came [to terrorists] from all over the world. Finally, the fourth reason is to distribute instructions on terrorist attacks," Boyan Radoykov said.
Yet five years of UNESCO work on cybersecurity brought first results, Radoykov admitted.
"Five years have passed since the beginning of our work. And now extremists have [almost] no opportunity to collect money in social networks or to recruit people," he stated.
According to Radoykov, recruitment is quite a long process as it can take up to five months for terrorists to make a person buy a ticket to Turkey, cross the border with Syria and join their ranks.
"Now terrorists do not have this time. Such accounts are simply deleted in a week. Even artificial intelligence is used for these purposes ... So, we can talk about positive dynamics," he added.
Yet, such work is not over even taking into account that Islamic State (terrorist group banned in Russia) is losing large areas in Iraq and Syria which it once controlled, according to the UNESCO high-ranking official.
According to Radoykov, the next generation faces the same risks as the current one.
"Recent events in Sri Lanka showed that this work must be continued. We must win this battle [with terrorism]," he stressed, referring to the massacre terrorists staged in the island nation in April.
Over 250 people were killed and hundreds injured in a series of coordinated bombings across the country on Easter Sunday. The attack was later claimed by Islamic State.
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