France Turns to Hackers to Unmask Jihadi Internet Recruiters

France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls has announced that he would hire "many hackers" and "a battalion of community managers" to monitor extremists online.

Addressing his listeners at the Dauphine University in Paris on Wednesday, Valls said that the hackers will be used to detect and identify jihadists online preventing them from recruiting France's youths.

According to the politician, both hackers and "community managers" would have "to cross swords more effectively with jihadist recruiters," and protect cyberspace from Islamists.

"Terrorists often use the same social networks as everyone else," the prime minister said as quoted by The Local. He also called upon Internet providers to act in accordance with their legal obligations and moral principles.

France's authorities have already taken measures aimed at countering jihadists and their propaganda in cyberspace. After the hideous Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris in January 2015, the French government launched a video campaign in order to halt would-be jihadists from joining the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The shock video demonstrated to French youths the yawning gap between what they had been told about the Islamic State by ISIL's propaganda and the reality on the ground.

France's government has also poured almost €60 million into its plan aimed at the prevention of radicalization, including the "cyber patrols."

Meanwhile, according to some estimates about 1,683 French nationals have purportedly joined the Islamic State insurgents in Syria and Iraq.