A Home Office minister has called for ‘a new approach, a new partnership’ between governments and social media and internet businesses to ‘force the more timely removal of content’ that praises or is from terrorists.
Baroness Joanna Shields, the Minister for Internet Safety and Security, was speaking in the United States, to the George Washington University Centre for Cyber and Homeland Security. She said that the UK was working with industry to voluntarily remove extremist content online through the counter terrorism internet referral unit; and bringing communication experts and civil society groups together to develop and run targeted and effective counter messaging campaigns that provide compelling alternative voices to extremist rhetoric.
She called for the deployment of ‘strong data analytics to recognise how terrorists amplify their messages and to decipher the patterns of their deadly actions’. She said: “The internet is universal and it is imperative that developers consider these dangers alongside other internet harms. We need companies to champion and support projects that build digital resilience – programmes that help young people think critically about what they see and read online so they can make informed and safe choices.”
For the speech in full visit https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/countering-online-radicalisation-and-extremism-baroness-shields-speech.
