Terrorists will always find a way online

Theresa May is right to demand that Google and Facebook channel more effort into finding and removing terrorist videos (News, Issue 512, page 9), but it will probably be in vain because extremists will always find a way to spread propaganda on the internet, often bypassing the mainstream. The problem lies with the very concept of the internet. At its inception, Sir Tim Berners-lee saw

it as a way to further human progress and share knowledge. We can now see how naive that was, because if it’s easy to spread knowledge, it will be equally easy to spread hatred.

All terrorist groups throughout history would have pounced upon the internet as an effective way to sell their message. And just imagine how sickeningly powerful Nazi propaganda would have been online. As we found out with the Nazis, the only way to stop ISIS transmitting propaganda is to defeat them on the ground. Daniel Beckwith