Expert says Garda unit to tackle online terrorist radicalisation and recruitment would be useful
It comes after the Irish Examiner reported last Saturday that Irish intelligence services do not have gardaí tasked with monitoring online security threats.
Maura Conway, senior lecturer in international security at Dublin City University, said that Islamic State (IS) was devoting “significant financial and especially human resources” to its online campaign.
She said IS had now begun to “directly” contact young internet users anywhere, including potentially in Ireland.
Dr Conway said that while there was no specific research on whether any Irish people who had travelled to Syria or Iraq had been radicalised online, research indicated that most radicalisation was “enabled and facilitated” via social media.
In relation to the lack of a dedicated Garda unit, she said: “It certainly seems much more sensible to monitor the social media accounts of individuals posing risks or threats than to engage in the kinds of wholesale surveillance of internet users that some policymakers and others appear to favour.”
Security sources have told the Irish Examiner neither the Special Detective Unit nor Security & Intelligence — the Garda sections tasked with combating terrorism — had staff dedicated to online monitoring.
Sources said Security & Intelligence had been in contact with the PSNI, which has set up such a unit, regarding possibly acquiring the specific software they use to search and examine social media platforms of multiples users.
Dr Conway said it was also her understanding that the gardaí did not have a unit.
“I would expect this to change, perhaps not in the short term, but certainly in the longer term,” she said.
She said the UK and Dutch police, for example, had established dedicated units some years ago and Europol, the EU police agency, established one in July.
“A trend is therefore emerging and it makes sense because there is specific domain knowledge and skills that are necessary in order to be effective online,” she said.
She said there were “obvious benefits” of a specialist unit for awareness and identifying actual threats.
However, she said the interests of national security and public safety had to be balanced with freedom of expression and privacy.
