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The terror attacks of September 11th, 2001 were the beginning of a new era. They revealed a threat to world peace that had hitherto been largely unrecognized by the general public. A threat of global dimensions. The attacks also made the public see how intensively terrorists and religious fundamentalists use the Internet.

They misuse it for agitation, self-promotion, recruitment and propaganda, but also for communication and coordination. They normally make use of modern encryption methods for this, in order to protect information from interception by others. The Internet thus saves terrorists the need for time-consuming, dangerous journeys and conspiratorial meetings with the risk of arrest and makes it possible to maintain contact from abroad with organizers and cells in the respective "enemy states".

The Internet offers a wealth of information on Islamist themes in text, pictures, voice and film – including armed Jihad and claims of responsibility for suicide attacks and bombings. The extent to which organisationz with a fundamentalist basis have already made use of the technology available to them is clear from the range of Internet radio and TV broadcasters who have for some time been active in this way.

Defence of freedoms and values

The task of naiin is primarily to identify and directly combat terrorist structures on the Internet. That includes the regular monitoring and documentation of these types of activity and worldwide cooperation with policing and security bodies.

naiin also sees it as its task to develop and implement international standards across borders for Internet, telecommunications and mobile phone companies who come into contact with these types of activity. A further central goal is to keep the general public informed. The objective is to promote public awareness of terrorism on the Internet.

In addition, naiin works at a political level to ensure that the political world does not introduce pointless measures that infringe human rights in the mistaken belief that they will make an important contribution to the fight against terrorism. The objective must be to protect freedoms and values from terrorists, not to abolish them ourselves. The political measures already taken to combat terrorism on the Internet should therefore be continuously reviewed worldwide, to consider whether they are both sensible and effective.