Amazon web services disable ISIS propaganda website

Kabul [Afghanistan] August 28 (ANI): US tech giant Amazon on Friday disabled a website used by a propaganda arm of Daesh after reports suggested that the terrorist group has been using the company’s web technology to promote their content.

Nida-e-Haqq, an Islamic State media group that distributes Islamist content in the Urdu language, had been using the company’s dominant cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Services, to host its content, despite company policies against working with terror groups, The Washington Post reported.

Rita Katz who is the executive director of SITE Intelligence Group (a group that monitors online extremism) said that some of promoted content included messages about the Islamic State-Khorasan offshoot that claimed responsibility for the lethal attack. The Nida-e-Haqq app on Thursday carried what it claimed was an image of the bomber wrapped in a suicide vest ahead of a blast, as reported by The Washington Post.

“Following an investigation, we have disabled a website that was linked to this app as it was in violation of the AWS Acceptable Use Policy,” Amazon spokesman Casey McGee said in an emailed statement. Talking about the ‘Nida-e-Haqq app’, Rita Katz said it is surprising that “ISIS could still find a way to exploit a hosting company like Amazon,” this app isn’t even trying to stay low-key. This app was clearly created to keep ISIS’ message and content alive and distributed online. … It is clear that the stakes of keeping such content offline is no less major than in past years.”

Amazon, like most American technology companies, has policies prohibiting Islamist terror groups from using its services, The Washington Post reported. On Friday, US President Joe Biden had said the Islamic State-Khorasan has planned complex attacks against US forces and others in Afghanistan after they were released from prisons during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

“The United States has reason to believe the leaders of the Islamic State-Khorasan terror group are behind the attacks at the Kabul airport that killed US service members,” Biden said. (ANI)