Vision for online action is a pipedream says expert
THERESA MAY has called on leading powers to do more to ensure foreign fighters who travel to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq are brought to justice.
Leading a session on counterterrorism at the G7 summit in Taormina, Sicily, the Prime Minister said they needed to be prepared to share their expertise with the countries the fighters travel to and fight in.
The summit also saw Mrs May challenge US President Donald Trump over leaks of information on the investigation into the Manchester suicide bombing.
Downing Street said Mrs May and Mr Trump had noted there had been “strong agreement” in discussions so far that the G7 should do more collectively on counter-terrorism.
“The two leaders also agreed the importance of free trade, while ensuring that people are not left behind by globalisation,” a spokesman said.
A senior Government source said in wider discussions about foreign fighters at the summit, Mrs May had made the point that it was important to ensure those countries had the legal means to prosecute, deport or extradite suspects as appropriate.
The Prime Minister warned that as the fighters returned to their home countries they posed a new terrorist threat.
She called on the G7 members to provide legal and policing support to countries such as Iraq, to help them prosecute any foreign fighters they capture.
Mrs May said: “It is vital we do more to cooperate with our partners in the region to step up returns and prosecutions of foreign fighters.
“This means improving intelligence-sharing, evidence gathering and bolstering countries’ police and legal processes.”
Mrs May said G7 members needed to be able to share data securely on foreign fighters so they can be tracked as they cross borders and decisions made on whether they should be arrested.
This would include sharing the identities of foreign fighters who may try to pass through third countries on the way back home.
When evidence was found of illegal activity involving British fighters, she said it should be passed on to the relevant UK authorities so they could be prosecuted on their return.
The case of London-born jihadi Aine Davis, who was jailed in Turkey, is an example of the cooperation Mrs May wants to see.
Davis was suspected of having been part of a four-strong Islamist terror cell dubbed The Beatles along with Mohammed Emwazi, the killer nicknamed Jihadi John.
He was convicted of being a member of a terrorist organisation and jailed for seven and a half years earlier this month.
The trial heard how he had been tracked by Turkish police and intelligence officials days after being smuggled out of Syria by Daesh. THE PRIME Minister’s call for governments to crack down on technology firms over online extremism is a “pipedream”, an internet security expert has warned.
Theresa May has urged leading nations to pressure firms such as Google and Facebook over extreme content on their platforms and called for the creation of an “international industry-led forum” focused on reducing extremism online.
But security researcher Lee Munson, from Comparitech, said the current approach to policing content online was “wrong”.
“Whatever we may think about the competence of the political candidates in the upcoming UK election, the one thing that is certain is that the clear majority have little practical knowledge about the world of tech,” he said.
“In the wake of the Manchester attack, Theresa May’s call to tackle online extremism can be nothing more than a pipedream in this complex world in which we live.
“While Western nations may well comply in removing hate material from the web as soon as it is detected, either through human review or by automated means, the countries that we’re told are posing the threat have no such mechanisms in place, and are unlikely to be interested in playing ball.”
Google has said it is “committed” to creating an international forum designed to tackle extreme content appearing online in response to calls from Prime Minister Theresa May for the creation of an “international industry-led forum”.