Background: Warnings over online extremism

Theresa May’s warning that she is ready to crack down on the safe haven which the internet provides for radicalisation to flourish comes after years of warnings about the way terrorist groups use technology.

Uk-based extremists are now able to effectively “talk directly” to Islamic State (IS) fighters and their wives through web forums and social media. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are the forums of choice.

It is through this kind of recruitment that IS has been able to drive the increase in the new kind of “unsophisticated” attacks seen in Nice and Paris last year before the two attacks in recent months in London which used vehicles and knives.

IS and other groups are known to operate a dispersed network of accounts which means they can quickly adapt their content if they are suspended by platforms like Facebook or Twitter. This technique has been branded “swarm casting” by the UK government internet safety minister, Baroness Shields. It allows radical sympathisers to quickly “reorganise their communications” to ensure a near-persistent presence of their messages on social media platforms.

Online recruiters are also known to assist foreign fighters by helping to plan their travel, often involving them being smuggled into Syria.

Facebook, Twitter and Youtube have come in for stinging criticism for failing to do enough to crack down on the use of their platforms for extremism. They were found to employ just a few hundred workers monitoring billions of accounts worldwide by the Commons’ home affairs committee last year, which found they are also hiding behind their supranational legal status which makes it difficult for one individual nation like the UK to take effective action against them.

This means they won’t “act responsibly” for fear of damaging their reputation, the MPS said.