Everything you’ll need for a suicide bomb... it’s all there on the internet
MANUALS and videos showing how to make bombs identical to the one detonated in the Manchester Arena outrage are available on the world’s biggest social media and consumer websites, a Belfast Telegraph investigation today reveals.
Any web user can also buy unlimited amounts of the ingredients and equipment used in the explosive device detonated by suicide bomber Salman Abedi that killed 21 innocent people and left 116 maimed and injured.
Our audit of sites including Amazon and eBay that are hosting deadly videos and instruction manuals comes as Prime Minister Theresa May warned the battle against Isis is moving from “the battlefield to the internet”.
Manchester bomber Abe- di (22) constructed a detonator from a basic switchboard before combining chemicals to produce a white powder dubbed ‘Mother of Satan’, which acted as the explosive charge.
A 12-volt battery was then attached to power the detonator and the rucksack the Isis-linked murderer used to conceal the device was packed with nuts, screws and bolts.
Despite the ease with which Abedi constructed and exploded his bomb, websites including Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, eBay and the search engine Google are awash with instruction guides and videos on bomb-making, and are selling the goods necessary to make the devices.
The materials are available at the click of a button, despite the UK terror threat being raised to ‘critical’ after Abedi’s attack at an Ariana Grande show in Manchester packed with children, students and parents.
Our extensive audit of the sites hosting material about bomb-making comes weeks after Google was lambasted for promoting a jihadi terror manual that outlined how to use explosive materials and construct detonators.
It explained how to plant devices in buses and how to make booby-trapped car bombs.
We found Facebook is hosting secretive groups only available to members dedicated to explosives and firearms.
The closed groups are illustrated with pictures of weapons and circuit boards.
It will again highlight the controversy over Facebook’s choice to allow violent threats and videos of abuse on its site.
YouTube is also filled with vid- eos showing how to mix chemicals used in the Manchester bomb.
And Amazon and eBay have scores of books on sale for pennies showing users how to make bombs — including the infamous Anarchist’s Cookbook.
One eBay listing is for 143 books on explosives and gunpowder, on sale for only £4.95.
And in spite of Google’s pledge to remove jihadi terror manuals, there are also hundreds of sites linked to far-Right groups showing how to make bombs.
A spokesman for Google, which also owns YouTube, says the company is “deeply troubled by violence and acts of terrorism” and has promised to “remove links to illegal content in search”.
Links to bomb manuals for sale are rife on Twitter, which removes users’ accounts if they are related to the promotion of terrorism.
Twitter said that in the last six months of 2016 it suspended 376,890 accounts for violations related to promotion of terrorism.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson slammed Facebook for allowing the publication of sectarian material, which he said represented an illegal incitement to hatred and support for terrorism.
The DUP Westminster candidate for Lagan Valley told the Belfast Telegraph: “I am very concerned Facebook is hosting material that supports terrorism.
“Free speech is one thing, but direct abuse and hatred is another. The law is quite clear on incitement to hatred and support for terrorism, and Facebook needs to have a clear line about what is acceptable and what isn’t.”