Gulf News

Social media giants must join war on terror

Terrorists can never win, but internet firms need to play their part in tackling the abuse of their platforms

- Britain’s Home Secretary

black cabs appear again on Parliament Square. All those affected — those who lost their lives, their friends, colleagues, families and loved ones — will remain in our hearts, our thoughts, and in our prayers.

This could not have been expressed more clearly at the meeting of faith leaders from across the spectrum, convened by the Met last week, in the wake of Wednesday’s awful events. They were as clear, too, in their condemnati­on of the acts of this individual. And in their praise for the police, one of whose number was so brutally murdered in the line of duty. We have the best police and intelligen­ce agencies in the world, and it’s right that we now give them the space to go about doing their jobs.

Counter-terrorism strategy

Alongside, over the last year, we have been preparing our updated CONTEST, the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy. We will set it out shortly. Of paramount importance in this strategy will be how we tackle radicalisa­tion online, and provide a counternar­rative to the vile material being spewed out by the likes of Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), and extreme right-wing groups such as National Action, which I made illegal last year.

Each attack confirms again the role that the internet is playing in serving as a conduit, inciting and inspiring violence, and spreading extremist ideology of all kinds.

There is much that we are doing: after referrals from the police Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit, over 250,000 pieces of terrorist-related material have been taken down from the internet since 2010. We work incredibly hard with our EU and internatio­nal partners to make the online space a hostile one for terrorists.

But we can’t do it by ourselves. We need the help of social media companies, the Googles, the Twitters, the Facebooks of this world. And the smaller ones, too: platforms such as Telegram, Wordpress and Justpaste.it. We need them to take a more proactive and leading role in tackling the terrorist abuse of their platforms. We need them to develop further technology solutions. We need them to set up an industry-wide forum to address the global threat. I am meeting them this week to ask them to do just that.

Act of complete futility

The action of this radicalise­d individual was an attack on all of us. It tried to silence our democracy. It was brutal and indiscrimi­nate in those it targeted — young, old, irrespecti­ve of nationalit­y, profession, colour or creed. It exposed the hateful, hate-filled and perverted beliefs of those who would try to harm us, those who perpetrate acts of bloody, nihilistic violence. But ultimately, too, it was an act of complete futility.

For every twisted individual who would slaughter innocent bystanders, there will always those that run to victims’ aid without care for their own safety, as the nurses from Guy’s and St Thomas’ did, sprinting along Westminste­r Bridge to help those who had been mown down. For every cowardly act like this, there will be policemen and policewome­n who place themselves in danger’s path to protect others — they put on their uniforms and do it every day.

For every hate-filled attempt to harm, there will be always the legion of those who do not hesitate to give their help and care to a stranger when it is needed. The quiet dignity with which the city got itself up and going again could not make the point more clearly that the terrorists can never, ever, win.

 ?? Luis Vazquez/©Gulf News ??
Luis Vazquez/©Gulf News
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