In response to the growing presence of terrorist content on audio-sharing platforms, Europol coordinated the largest Referral Action Day to date at the beginning of March 2026, targeting propaganda used by groups across the ideological spectrum, including jihadist and violent right-wing extremist networks.

Audio propaganda is increasingly recognised as a powerful radicalisation tool. Unlike videos or images, it is harder to moderate, as identifying extremist messaging requires linguistic expertise and contextual understanding. As a result, such content can circulate undetected and remain accessible to vulnerable individuals. While music and songs have long been used in terrorist propaganda to trigger emotional responses, evoke anger or grievance, glorify sacrifice and martyrdom, and reinforce group identity through “us versus them” narratives, they now also serve as a softer entry point into extremist ecosystems online. Compared with explicit ideological speeches, songs may appear cultural or inspirational, enabling extremist messaging to reach wider audiences.

The Referral Action Day was coordinated by Europol’s EU Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU) and Hungary, bringing together investigators from 13 countries. It led to the referral of 17,298 URLs across 40 platforms, representing over 1,100 hours of terrorist and extremist propaganda. The content was referred to service providers for assessment under their terms of service, with 77% removed so far.