Blogging site ‘turning a blind eye to Isil pages’

THE world’s biggest blogging website is turning a blind eye to pages run by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), even after they have been reported, antiterrorism campaigners say.

Wordpress.com has hosted hundreds of links to extremist videos, as well as propaganda pages from the Taliban, al-qaeda and Isil, according to the Counter Extremism Project (CEP).

The US anti-terror think tank said it had found videos on Wordpress sites including the film that allegedly motivated last month’s terror attack in New York. Other pages include the preachings of Anwar al-awlaki, an Islamist cleric, and pages linked to Bayan, Isil’s official radio channel.

The CEP has repeatedly reported the pages in the last 18 months, but the calls have gone unanswered.

David Ibsen, CEP’S executive director, said the site was one of “the biggest problems” in dealing with terror online.

It found one page that hosted hundreds of video links to a jihadi call to arms by Abu Bakr al-baghdadi, Isil’s leader. The video allegedly inspired Sayfullo Saipov, the terror suspect accused of killing eight people in New York last month. Although the page has been taken down, several others reported by the CEP and linked to Isil remain online.

Wordpress.com, run by the US company Automattic, uses free software that allows anyone to set up their own webpage. It says more than 400 million people view its network of sites a month and is ranked as the world’s 50th-biggest website by traffic.

Although it claims to ban terrorist groups, it has been named by Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, as among a handful of online networks exploited by terrorists that has not done enough to halt extremist propaganda.

Automattic, the owner of Wordpress.com, could not be reached for comment.