G7 backs May’s Facebook blast

WORLD leaders last night backed Theresa May’s plan to force social media giants to get tough on terror.

In a significant victory for the Prime Minister, the G7 group of industrialised nations supported her proposal to make firms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google accept their ‘social responsibility’ to block online extremism.

In a strongly worded statement, they said ‘the brutal attack in Manchester demonstrates that we must now redouble our efforts’ to tackle terrorism, adding that the internet had become a ‘powerful tool’ for groups such as Islamic State that are bent on attacking the West.

The leaders, who include Donald Trump, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, warned the technology giants they need to ‘act urgently’ to introduce ‘automatic detection of content promoting incitement to violence’.

Serving notice on the firms, which have acted with impunity until now, the world leaders demanded they ‘substantially increase their efforts to address terrorist content’.