UAE: US praises ally’s efforts to tackle IS online

The UAE is playing a leading role alongside the UK and Malaysia on countering the online propaganda drive by Islamic State (IS, Isil or Daesh), according to comments by US special envoy for theGlobal Coalition to Counter Isil Brett McGurk. Speaking at a briefing at the White House on 10 June, McGurk said Twitter had taken down about 125,000 pro-IS handles to date. “For every one on Twitter now there’s about six counter-Isil handles countering their messaging every day”, he said. Similar efforts are afoot on other platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.