Spain has led an international police operation that identified more than 9,000 links to online video games used by violent groups to spread extremist messages and target young people and minors. Europol said on Tuesday that police asked technology companies to remove the material, which was shared across 47 gaming social media platforms.
The content promoted jihadist terrorism as well as violent extremism associated with far-right, far-left and anarchist groups. Some games reproduced terrorist imagery and attacks, allowing teenagers to take on the role of group members and simulate assaults against police officers, military personnel or people of another race or religion. Europol said the material was intended to attract new members and supporters, including minors.
Sixteen European countries took part in the operation, conducted through Europol’s Reference Action Days programme. Spain participated through the Intelligence Centre for Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime (CITCO), part of the Interior Ministry. The operation sought to identify and, where possible, remove content produced or shared to promote violent extremist and terrorist narratives through online role-playing games.
The action follows an earlier operation in November last year involving Spain and seven other countries, which identified links to violent games including 5,408 with jihadist themes, 1,070 linked to far-right content and 105 that encouraged racist or xenophobic attacks. Europol has also reported that seven in ten jihadists arrested in Spain in recent years radicalised exclusively online, through social media, messaging apps, websites, forums, chats or gaming platforms.
The operation is part of Spain’s broader effort to remove dangerous material from the internet, which began in 2023. Interior Ministry figures presented last April showed that Spanish security forces had sought the removal of 14,411 violent items online during 2025, mostly linked to radical Islamism and, to a lesser extent, far-right extremism and white supremacism. Around 75% of that material was ultimately removed.
Other online enforcement actions have taken place this year. Between February 19 and March 3, authorities removed more than 1,100 hours of violent audio, mainly speeches by jihadist leaders and Islamist songs known as nasheeds. In May, a separate operation removed 14,200 online posts linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which the article says had been designated a terrorist organisation by the European Union.
Sources: El País Portada.