Largest Europol action against hate speech to date reports over 6000 links
During another "Referral Action Day" (RAD), law enforcement officers across Europe collected a record amount of potentially criminal content.
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In a concerted action by law enforcement authorities in Europe, Europol has collected the largest number of suspected criminal content to date, including hate speech and terrorist propaganda. 6350 links from 46 platforms and 20 websites were collected. They will now be forwarded to the relevant authorities and the operators of the services, the latter because they are to check whether they are to be removed simply by violating the terms of use. The law enforcement authorities also issued their own deletion orders.
The measures took place as part of this year's second "Referral Action Day (RAD)" – the first edition in July brought together 2000 links. RAD, which has been held at irregular intervals for several years now, is primarily aimed at criminal content that incites hatred against ethnic or religious groups with the aim of combating terrorism.
Anti-Semitism continues to grow
As early as mid-2024, Europol registered a sharp increase in anti-Semitic propaganda and calls for acts of violence following the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, 2023. Once again, the investigators found an increase in this type of content. These were shared by various organizations, groups and individuals, whom Europol does not name.
The implementation of the RAD always alternates between the countries and authorities active at Europol; this time, law enforcement officers from Spain and Hungary were in charge. Albania, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom took part. The legal basis is a framework agreement concluded by the European Council in 2008.
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