Tech giants face terror law in EU crackdown

BRUSSELS:Google, Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc have taken significant steps to expunge Islamic State propaganda and other terrorist content from their platforms.

But taking no chances, the European Union is set to propose a tough new law anyway — threatening internet platforms, big and small, with fines if they fail to take down terrorist material, according to people familiar with the proposals that could be unveiled as soon as September.

While the details of the measures are still being thrashed out, they would likely be based on the EU guidance from earlier this year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t yet public.

The EU in March issued guidelines giving internet companies an hour from notification by authorities to wipe material such as gruesome beheading videos and other terror content from their services, or face possible legislation if they fail to do so.

Large tech firms say they’ve been making big strides in the fight to wipe terror propaganda, videos and other messages from their sites, partly thanks to automated tools that in some cases can detect such content before users even see it.

Still, some critics say the big internet giants need to do more. The non-profit organization Counter Extremism Project, which aims to combat the threat of extremist ideologies, said in April that gaps remained in Facebook and others companies’ approaches to combating extremism.