Theresa May told to kick ISIS offline after web giants snub her deadline to remove terror content
MPs have demanded Theresa May holds web giants accountable for allowing ISIS to post on their websites
THERESA MAY was told to stand by a vow to fine web giants after they sparked uproar by flouting a deadline to remove all terror content.
Furious MPs said “there can be no more excuses” and told Ministers to follow Germany by introducing legislation to clobber the likes of Facebook with huge penalties.
The blast came as the Home Office revealed Daesh supporters had published an extraordinary 67,000 tweets since the start of September and flooded the web with links to propaganda.
English speakers are now the second most important audience for Daesh supporters behind Arabic.
A month ago, Theresa May told Google, Facebook and Twitter they had a month to remove all extremist content within two hours or face crippling fines. Speaking in New York at the time, she told web giants it was time to go “further and faster”.
But last night on the eve of the cut-off date - a G7 showdown with the web giants in Italy - Government insiders admitted they would need to be given yet more time to act.
In comments released ahead of the meeting, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “We have been calling on companies to go further and faster in dealing with the abuse of their platforms by terrorists.
“I welcome the efforts shown so far but we must make no mistake that the scale of the challenge is still significant.”
Labour’s Yvette Cooper – chair of the powerful Home Affairs Select Committee – said the companies “must face action”.
She stormed: “We’ve had speeches, warnings and summits from the Government on online extremism for years, and yet too little action has been taken.
“Social media companies are still too slow to take dangerous and illegal terrorist material down when it is reported to them and they are still some way from proactively identifying and removing this content themselves.
“There can be no more excuses. If companies are dragging their feet, they must face action, including facing significant penalties.”
Home Office sources said the Home Secretary would use today’s G7 to call on the private sector to develop automated technology so terror content can be quickly detected and removed.
They said she would “strongly reiterate the importance of this happening faster”.
Her counterparts from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US will also be at the G7 meeting to discuss the progress of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism.
The Forum - led by Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft – was announced in the aftermath of the Westminster terror attack a year ago.
