Jihadist chants, sermons taken off SoundCloud: Europol

Jihadist chants, sermons taken off SoundCloud: Europol
Far-right and militant propaganda music and sermons have been taken off SoundCloud, a medium that had been increasingly tapped by jihadists to spread their message.
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The crackdown was launched by German police and coordinated by Europol [Getty]

Jihadist chants, sermons and propaganda targeted at attracting young recruits have been taken off SoundCloud, one of the world's biggest music streaming services, Europol said Friday.

The Berlin-based SoundCloud, which is known as the "Audio YouTube" and boasts millions of listeners, had been increasingly tapped by jihadists to spread their message -- sparking concern.

"Some 1,100 profiles and audio files assessed as illegal were flagged to SoundCloud. Upon review, SoundCloud deleted the reported files that were considered a breach of its terms and conditions," Europol said in a statement.

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These included "jihadist chants in several languages as well as audio fragments promoting violent and right wing extremist groups," it said.

The European police agency said some of the content "had already amassed several thousand hits and audio streams".

The crackdown was launched by German police and coordinated by Europol with the participation of law enforcement authorities from Britain, Denmark, Hungary, Portugal and Spain.

This referral action day is part of an ongoing public-private partnership between SoundCloud, law enforcement agencies and Europol to address the terrorist abuse of the internet, prevent online radicalisation and safeguard fundamental rights.

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