Law Enforcement

23 December 2014 Last updated at 00:50 GMT

Police play cat and mouse with online jihadists

By Gordon CoreraSecurity correspondent, BBC News

A cat and mouse game is taking place every day on the internet. It is the online battle to deny space to extremist content.

On one side of the frontline are a team based in New Scotland Yard - the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police.

On the other are jihadists based in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere posting propaganda videos online - the most grisly of which show the beheading of hostages.

"We take stuff down, they put more stuff up," explains one of the Scotland Yard team who spoke to the BBC but asked to remain anonymous for his own security.

He is passionate about the importance of his job even though it has its challenges.

"It can be quite draining having to continuously see graphic and horrible images," he says.

"In our department we're huge fans of social media generally, but what we don't want to see is young people having access to material which could be extremely disturbing such as a beheading video and be for example, swapping it on online platforms between themselves at school."

Each member of the team is assigned a different jihadist media team so they can learn their behaviour - where and how they post their videos - and move as fast as possible to get them taken down.

"There are certain groups we chase from platform to platform and we know we've been effective because they will leave a message on a social media platform saying that they are moving somewhere else. We'll then target them at that one."

Three decades ago, Margaret Thatcher talked of the need to "find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity"…

Read more at: http://www.bbc.com/news/the-reporters-30549622