Nations demand internet giants crackdown on extremist content

TAORMINA, Italy, May 27, (Agencies): The G7 nations on Friday demanded action from internet providers and social media firms against extremist content online, vowing to step up their fight against terrorism after this week’s Manchester attack.

British Prime Minister Theresa May won solidarity from her G7 colleagues at summit talks in Italy after the suicide bombing Monday at a pop concert killed 22 people, including several children.

The G7 also vowed a collective effort to track down and prosecute foreign fighters dispersing from conflicts such as Syria, which May said showed the morphing nature of the threat.

“We agreed the threat from DAESH is evolving rather than disappearing,” she told a news conference, referring to the Islamic State group, also known by the acronyms of ISIS and ISIL.

“As they lose ground in Iraq and Syria, foreign fighters are returning and the group’s hateful ideology is spreading online,” May said.

“Make no mistake -- the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet.”

May then headed home early from the summit to confront the “critical” threat still facing Britain.

The United States, France and Britain’s other partners in the G7 laid out their strategy in a joint statement adopted at the summit in Sicily.

They called on internet service providers and social media companies “to substantially increase their efforts to address terrorist content”.

Meanwhile, Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou called on the leaders of the Group of Seven nations to take urgent measures to end the Libyan crisis and derided them for not keeping to aid promises to fight poverty in West Africa’s poorest regions.

Niger, which adjoins Libya to the south and has fought Islamists at home, is increasingly concerned about the situation in the North Africa country where rival governments oppose each other leaving a power vacuum that has enabled Islamist groups to establish a foothold in the country.

Earlier, the United States’ reengagement in Syria’s war gives impetus to the Group of Seven nations to find a political solution to a conflict going on now for over six years, a senior French diplomat said on Friday.

France, a NATO ally and key backer of the Syrian opposition, has sharply criticised US policy in Syria since the Obama administration pulled back from launching strikes against President Bashar al-Assad in 2013 after a chemical attack that killed hundreds of people.

Since the arrival of President Donald Trump, all eyes have been on what the US approach to ending the war in Syria might be beyond the fight to crush Islamist militants.

In related news, Washington will not ease sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine and may even get tougher on Moscow, the White House said Friday, ending uncertainty over the US position on the thorny issue.

“We are not lowering our sanctions on Russia,” Gary Cohn, US President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor, told reporters at the G7 summit of leading industrialised nations in Sicily.

“If anything we would probably look to get tougher on Russia.”

The EU and United States under then president Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Moscow over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russia rebels.

In related development, US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed on Friday to expand sanctions against North Korea over its continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, the White House said.

Pyongyang has carried out repeated missile tests in the past year, prompting an array of countries to demand tougher economic sanctions to push the isolated country towards dismantling its weapons programmes.

Meeting before a Group of Seven summit, Trump and Abe dedicated much of their discussion to the issue, aides said.

“President Trump and Prime Minister Abe agreed their teams would cooperate to enhance sanctions on North Korea, including by identifying and sanctioning entities that support North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs,” the White House said in a statement.