Minister sees regional role in 'tearing down' Islamic State propaganda online

1An image of children of Indonesian jihadists taken from Islamic State social media propaganda aimed at recruiting Indonesians.
2Jakarta: Justice Minister Michael Keenan has called for Islamic State propaganda used to groom recruits online to be torn down and replaced with an online "counter-narrative to the violent and barbaric ideology".
3"We know [ Islamic State] tweets and send out about 100,000 social media messages a day and what they really do is very similar to the way a paedophile would groom a potential victim online," Mr Keenan told Fairfax Media.
4Fauzan al-Anshori, right, an Islamic State recruiter, leads the "bayat", an oath of allegiance, to the leader of Islamic State at al-Fataa mosque in Jakarta.
5"We've absolutely got to tear down the propaganda."
6At a round table with Indonesian terrorism experts, Mr Keenan said Australia would work closely with regional governments to develop narratives to counter terrorist propaganda.
7He said the focus would be on the online space, where extremists are grooming vulnerable people to recruit and radicalise to carry out harm.
8Mr Keenan is the first Australian minister to visit Indonesia since the executions of Bali nine pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
9He said Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Trade Minister Andrew Robb were also planning to visit this year.
10"Cooperating on counter-terrorism is in the interests of Australia just as much as it is in the interests of Indonesia," Mr Keenan said.
11"We have to continue to do that even though the broader relationship can sometimes have troubles."
12He said IS was using Australians and Indonesians who had gone to the Middle East to fight with the terrorist group to convince others from their country to join them using social media.
13"There are many evil organisations but they still very effectively use modern forms of communication," Mr Keenan said.
14"If you can't come and fight alongside them they encourage you to commit domestic terror attacks. The threat to Indonesia is very similar to the threat we are facing in Australia."
15He said Australia worked with social media companies to remove offensive material but it could not all be done simultaneously due to the sheer volume being pumped out.
16"The other thing we've got to do - and this came up in discussions we had yesterday - is put different and better messaging out there so if you are searching for something online you come up with a counter-narrative to the violent and barbaric ideology you come across from [IS]."
17Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Luhut Pandjaitan, who met with Mr Keenan, said a joint team would be set up to share intelligence on terrorism activities and possibly train together.