India blocks FB pages, 2 more websites for carrying IS propaganda

NEW DELHI, INDIA: India has blocked two websites which were allegedly being used by the Islamic State (IS) for propaganda.

According to a report in the Times of India, two Facebook pages run by anonymous persons in Jammu & Kashmir to lure youngsters into joining Jihad have also been removed.

The two websites, blocked on IB's request, had details on how to make bombs, carry out lone-wolf attacks and Jehadi training modules. The two Facebook pages, now blocked, were being run in the Kashmir for a few weeks, the ToI report said.

ToI said that the action was taken after a senior-level committee comprising officials of Intelligence Bureau, home and information technology ministries and CERT-In (cyber security prevention body) discussed terror threats emanating from the Internet.

The main focus of the meeting was increasing use of social networking sites by terror outfits to recruit vulnerable youth.

The government has blocked more than 50 websites and pages of social networking sites that contained terror-related activities had this year.

Security and intelligence experts meet once a month to discuss threat from social media and CERT-in is given details of the websites to be blocked for carrying out Jehadi propaganda. Earlier this year, CERT-in had blocked 26 websites/URLs related to IS, ToI said.

The move comes even as the government is planning a 24x7 body to track suspicious activities on the Internet and talks are on with Internet service providers.