May warns over extremist content at UN
Theresa May used her keynote speech to the UN general assembly to demand technology companies go “further and faster” in removing extremist content.
The Prime Minister also called on the United Nations to reform and delivered a rebuke to US president Donald Trump over climate change.
Prime Minister Theresa May has warned technology companies must go “further and faster” in removing extremist content in her keynote address to the United Nations general assembly.
It came before a special meeting between Mrs May, other world leaders, and Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter.
Mrs May challenged the companies to develop technological fixes to take down terrorist material within one to two hours.
The Prime Minister said it was time to step up efforts to tackle extremists’ use of the internet and block access to ideologies which “preach hatred, sow division and undermine our common humanity”.
Urging them to go “further and faster”, she said “this is a major step in reclaiming the internet from those who would use it to do us harm,”.
Mrs May also used her speech to call on the United Nations to reform.
She warned that Britain will make up to 30 per cent of its annual £90 million core funding conditional on theun making good on new secretary general Antonio Guterres’s drive to make it “more agile, transparent and joined-up”. While the UK will continue to be “generous”, the £30m will only be provided only to agencies which show they are efficient and transparent
And she delivered a rebuke to US president Donald Trump over his demand to renegotiate the Paris Agreement on tackling climate change.
The Prime Minister called on all countries to “come together and defend” the rules-based system of international agreements and conventions such as the Paris accord and nuclear non-proliferation treaties.
Mrs May singled out Syria and North Korea for condemnation as she warned the system was threatened by “states deliberately flouting for their own gain the rules and standards that have secured our collective prosperity and security”. Security Council members should be “prepared to take all necessary measures” to exert pressure on Kim Jong-un and restore stability to the Korean peninsula, she said.
Mrs May specifically condemned the “unforgiveable” use of chemical weapons by Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria and the “outrageous” development of nuclear weapons by North Korea.
Without mentioning Mr Trump or the US by name, she made clear that she regards it as vital that all UN states stick by their commitments in agreements to tackle issues ranging from security to trade protectionism and climate change.
“I believe that the only way for us to respond to this vast array of challenges is to come together and defend the international order that we have worked so hard to create. For it is the fundamental values that we share – values of fairness, justice and human rights – that have created the common cause between nations to act together in our shared interest and form the multilateral system.”