Minister: Tax web giants more if they won’t tackle terrorism

WEB giants could face a tax crackdown if they fail to help the authorities combat terrorism, the security minister said yesterday.

Ben Wallace condemned firms such Facebook, Google and YouTube for being ‘ruthless profiteers’ which are prepared to sell on personal data to soft porn companies but not hand it to police and the security services.

He said that reliance on the internet means Britain is vulnerable to terrorists and rogue states. ‘That’s what keeps me awake at night,’ he added. ‘We are more vulnerable than at any point in the last 100 years.’

His comments follow a year in which web giants have been pilloried for failing to help.

In the wake of terrorist attacks over the past 12 months, the Daily Mail has found reams of extremist content online designed to radicalise vulnerable people or give would-be jihadis instructions on how to cause carnage.

Ministers have also criticised the failure of encrypted smartphone messaging systems such as Whatsapp – which can be used to coordinate terror attacks – to open up their data to the security services. Mr Wallace, a Home Office minister, told The Sunday Times that ‘patience’ with the web giants within Whitehall was ‘running out fast’.

He said: ‘If they [internet firms] continue to be less than co-operative, we should look at things like tax as a way of incentivising them or compensating for their inaction.’

His comments prompted speculation that the firms could face a ‘windfall tax’. In 1997 the Blair government imposed such a one-off tax on privatised utilities. But officials were unable to provide any details of what form the tax proposed by Mr Wallace could take.

Facebook said he was wrong to say the company put profit before safety. Millions had been invested in people and technology to identify and remove terrorist content.

YouTube said the firm was committed to being ‘part of the solution’ and was doing more every day to tackle the problem.