ISIS propaganda on TikTok. At least 15 people have been arrested in the Netherlands for “inciting terrorism”
TikTok on a mobile phone. Photo source: Boumen Japet / Alamy / Profimedia
A total of 15 people were arrested in the Netherlands on Tuesday on suspicion of spreading propaganda for the Islamic State (ISIS) group on the social network TikTok and trying to persuade people to commit terrorist attacks, Dutch prosecutors said, according to Reuters.
The arrests were triggered after a TikTok account was detected that was massively broadcasting ISIS propaganda, with Dutch subtitles, prosecutors said.
The TikTok posts, some with more than 100,000 views, encouraged people to join Islamic State and glorified martyrdom for the violent jihadist group, investigators said.
Thirteen of the suspects are Syrian and four have Dutch citizenship, prosecutors said, suggesting that some have dual citizenship. Four are minors.
The suspects, aged between 16 and 53, were detained following raids carried out throughout the country, following the arrest last month of a person identified by prosecutors as the main suspect.
The Dutch police said that they will continue the investigations in this “large-scale” investigation and that they do not rule out the possibility of new arrests, writes AFP.
The TikTok platform belongs to the Chinese company Bytedance.
