U.S. Center to Battle Islamic State Online Coming to Malaysia
- U.A.E-based Sawab Center was the first, opened a year ago
- U.S. official says Islamic State moving to encrypted networks
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A year after the State Department opened a data center in the Middle East aimed at countering Islamic State’s online messaging, the U.S. plans to inaugurate a similar outpost in Malaysia in coming months.
Like its counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, the new center will seek to undermine the terrorist group’s digital recruitment and propaganda efforts, Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel told the House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday in Washington. The center fills a gap in the media landscape by countering the “viral spread of disinformation by state and non-state actors,” he said.