US officials meet with top tech CEOs on terror concerns
Effort to stop terrorists from spreading propaganda, recruiting online
The Obama administration announced a new counter-terrorism task force Friday designed to improve efforts to combat terror recruitment and communication on social media.
The new initiative -- called The Countering Violent Extremism Task Force -- will be headed by the Department of Homeland Security with the Department of Justice serving in a joint capacity. It will be staffed by representatives from the FBI and the National Counterterrorism
Center among other agencies.
“The interagency CVE Task Force that we are announcing today, and which will be hosted by the Department of Homeland Security, will bring together the best resources and personnel from across the executive branch to ensure that we face the challenge of violent extremism in a unified and coordinated way.” DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement.
The State Department, meanwhile, is establishing a "global engagement center" to do a better job of involving foreign governments and non-governmental organizations based outside the U.S.
The announcement came as senior White House officials and members of President Obama's national security team traveled to Silicon Valley to seek tech industry help to stop the Islamic State and other groups from radicalizing people online and inciting them to carry out violent acts.
"Today's developments reflect President Obama's commitment to take every possible action to confront and interdict terrorist activities wherever they occur, including online," NSC spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Fox News’ Matthew Dean, Kelly Chernenkoff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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