Minister in legal threat to web giants over extremism

INTERNET firms were threatened with a legal crackdown last night after the security minister accused them of dragging their heels over extremism.

Ben Wallace said some social media companies were still ‘refusing’ to take tough action to remove material that promoted terrorism.

He said they were more interested in ‘maximising profits’ than safety – and even ‘encouraged’ people to watch dubious content online.

The security minister also hit out at technology companies whose data encryption allows terror cells to com- municate under the radar. Mr Wallace described some social media firms as ‘completely duplicitous’.

Speaking about their bosses, he added that ‘sitting on a bean bag wearing a T-shirt doesn’t make you some freedom-loving hippie’.

Asked about sanctions, he said: ‘We are open to all measures. We will be putting pressure on them.’ Mr Wallace said he believed the firms were ‘not immune to pressure’, adding: ‘We could change the law – there’s financial pressures.’