Amber Rudd orders Facebook, Google and Twitter bosses to share terror-detection software with smaller firms
The Home Secretary made an emotional plea for better cooperation in the industry as she shared her personal pain at witnessing five terror attacks in Britain last year
AMBER Rudd today ordered Facebook, Google and Twitter bosses to share their terror-detection software with smaller firms.
The Home Secretary said the severity of the terror threat in the US and the UK meant the internet giants must prioritise the security and safety of their customers.
Speaking at a global summit of tech giants in San Francisco tonight she made an emotional plea for better cooperation in the industry as she shared her personal pain of witnessing five terror attacks in Britain last year.
Every attack had an online component, she told the Global Forum to Counter Terrorism, which was set up by Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft last year.
And she told them that three quarters of terror convicts in the UK possessed or spread poisonous terrorist material on the web.
While welcoming progress made by tech giants in developing auto-detection software to block poisonous extremism being spread on the web, Ms Rudd said they must now do more to share their expertise with smaller firms.
She told them she wanted to know “what they plan to do to support smaller companies”.
Ms Rudd told the forum: “Individually, the companies have been making important progress.
“Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft have begun to make technical changes to their platforms and to develop new technical solutions to automate the detection and removal of terrorist content.”
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Before her meeting with bosses from the tech giants, she told Sky News: “I’m going to be making sure they really take action - not just all talk - and actually take the material down.”
Earlier Ms Rudd unveiled new technology to be shared with smaller firms that can automatically detect 94 per cent of terror material online.
She said it was vital to give smaller firms the technology to automatically detect ISIS content because Home Office analysis showed that the terror group used more than 400 different online platforms to spread its ideology last year.