The European Union warns of an emerging terrorism menace focused on online activity, as officials mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Outlets report EU counter-terrorism officials say the current risk is shaped by online communities that encourage “violent thrills” and violence “for the sake of violence,” rather than only traditional jihadist networks.
The reports agree that jihadist groups remain a major threat in Europe, but they emphasize a newer, youth-driven pattern. The Hindu and others contrast earlier attacks enabled by in-person training with today’s largely online organization of extremist content and recruitment. One report, citing an interview with EU counter-terrorism coordinator Bartjan Wegter and coordinated policing activity across Europe, says investigators in nine countries disrupted a network tied to an online community known as “The COM,” identifying thousands of related web addresses.
Across the coverage, the scale of the network is described as unclear, and the outlets vary in how much they focus on the online phenomenon versus broader EU threat reporting and recent counter-terror operations, including arrests and attacks that were reported but not described as mass-casualty events.
