Online Islamic terror recruitment threat undervalued: Pinotti

Rome, Sep 26 (IANS)  Security agencies have for too long underestimated the perils posed by jihadist terrorists who use the internet to recruit, Italy's Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti said, urging countries to regain lost ground.

"The ability to narrate hatred and violence is highly developed," Pinotti said on Monday in an address to a cyber technology fair in Rome.

"We have undervalued this danger for too long and now we need to make up for lost time. The state must do its part," Pinotti said.

Italy's Defence Ministry is studying Internet terror recruitment and how to develop "counter-narratives" to counter online jihadist propaganda used to snare recruits, the Minister said.

"We will have some results available in the next few months and will make these available to other actors tasked with fighting this type of threat," Pinotti stated.