Rudd: social media firms must do more to stop terror
AMBER RUDD today names social media companies as she demands more action to tackle online terror and help in fighting radicalisation.
The Home Secretary picks out the little-known websites Telegram, Wordpress and Justpaste.it as she widens the Government’s criticism of internet firms.
In an exclusive Sunday Telegraph article she reveals Google, Twitter and Facebook bosses have been summoned to a meeting to discuss action over extremism.
She also hints that new proposals to make internet giants take down hate videos quicker will be included in a counter-terrorism strategy due within weeks. It comes after a terror attack saw Adrian Ajao kill four people and injure dozens more by mowing down tourists on Westminster Bridge and storming Parliament.
“Each attack confirms again the role that the internet is playing in serving as a conduit, inciting and inspiring violence, and spreading extremist ideology of all kinds,” she writes.
“But we can’t tackle it by ourselves … We need [social media companies] to take a more proactive and leading role in tackling the terrorist abuse of their platforms.”
Scotland Yard said last night that Ajao’s murderous onslaught lasted just 82 seconds.
The Metropolitan Police issued a timeline, showing the attack began at eight seconds past 2.40pm and that Ajao was shot at 30 seconds past 2.41pm. With police investigations ongoing, The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered more details about what turned British-born Ajao into a killer.
The 52-year-old once tried to run a woman down in his local village by mounting the pavement in his car, this newspaper has been told. It has also emerged that Ajao lived within a mile of members of a terrorist cell convicted of attempting to blow up a Territorial Army base in Luton when he lived there.
Last night Tobias Ellwood, the hero MP who tried to save the life of Pc Keith Palmer minutes after the attack, revealed his “heartbreak” at the officer’s death.
“I’m deeply humbled and overwhelmed by the messages of support, especially from the policing fraternity, which I now realise is as close knit as the military’s in supporting its own,” he said in a statement.
“I played only a small part that day, doing what I was taught to do, and am honoured to have been invited to join the Privy Council afterwards. It is right that we concentrate our thoughts on the victims as we stand side by side to protect all that we hold dear, including our precious values and way of life which will always prevail.”
It has been announced that Pc Palmer will be remembered permanently for his bravery at the National Memorial Arboretum. The 48-year-old husband and father will be commemorated at the UK Police Memorial at the site in Staffordshire.
Eleven people have been arrested as police investigate the attack and a number of addresses raided across London, Birmingham and elsewhere.
All but one – a 58-year-old arrested in Birmingham – have been released from custody. Deputy Assistant
Commissioner Neil Basu, who is the Senior National Coordinator for UK Counter Terrorism Policing, said yesterday that Ajao is believed to have “acted alone”.
He added: “We must all accept that there is a possibility we will never understand why he did this.
“That understanding may have died with him.”
Ms Rudd writes in this newspaper: “We need the help of social media companies: the Googles, the Twitters, the Facebooks, of this world.
“And the smaller ones, too – platforms like Telegram, Wordpress and Justpaste.it”
The three smaller companies named are little known to most Britons but have become a focus of concern within the Home Office.
Government sources said that while the issues of extremists’ posts on Facebook and Google were well known, smaller internet firms were also facing the same challenges.
Telegram is a messaging service not dissimilar to mobile phone texting with 100 million active monthly users.
JustPaste.it is a free service which allows users to upload text, images and video, while Wordpress.com is a free website publishing and hosting system.
David Ibsen, who is executive director of the Counter Extremism Project, a New York think tank which combats online extremism, warned that the battle against jihadi groups would increasingly be fought on the internet.
He told The Sunday Telegraph: “Online channels are key to jihadi movements. The growth of Isil was accompanied by directing attacks through modern communications channels, or inspiring attacks by modern communications channels.”
He said extremist groups used programs like Wordpress to build sites to publicise their cause and achievements, while using encrypted communications channels like Telegram either to plan attacks, or to coordinate publicity for attacks after the fact.
He said: “As the territory of Islamic State shrinks, they’re going to rely more and more on their use of these modern communication tools to carry out their aims.”
tsThe attack on Westminster last Wednesday was an appalling assault on our democracy. The response of Britain’s leadership and public was marvellous: a defiant refusal to be afraid, a stubborn continuation of everyday life. The Prime Minister, Theresa May, caught the mood perfectly with her statement to Parliament. She said: “Democracy and the values it entails will always prevail.”
But, of course, there has to be an assessment of what took place and what must change. Security at Westminster will be re-examined; MI5 is understood to have launched a review into how it handled its intelligence on Adrian Ajao, the attacker otherwise known as Khalid Masood.
Moreover, there is the thorny problem of how to tackle radicalisation that takes place online and is a major tool of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, wants internet companies to do more to address the dissemination of extremist material on their platforms. Among the names she quotes are Telegram, Wordpress and Justpaste.it – as well as the larger and better known Facebook, Google and Twitter.
This is a very complex issue. Some platforms have actually done a lot to address the problem already. In one year alone, Google removed over 14 million videos globally. Twitter suspended tens of thousands of accounts linked to terrorists. Moreover, the UK Government does not have the legal reach necessary to tell a provider based overseas what to do. Any efforts towards change will have to be international – and the Home Secretary writes on this page that she will be meeting with tech companies this week to further that agenda.
This is good, for whatever complexities there might be, companies do need to take responsibility for the material they publish. If a letter was sent to The Sunday Telegraph inciting violence, it goes without saying that we would not publish it. Policing what appears on an online platform is far more difficult, granted – but the principle remains the same. The Government clearly feels that web companies must meet the intelligence services half-way when it comes to tackling extremism.
We are all in this together. As well as threatening lives, terrorists want to challenge democracy and poison its oxygen – free speech. Protecting life and liberty requires courage. The bravery of individuals such as Pc Keith Palmer, who lost his life in the exercise of his duty on Wednesday, is a humbling example of sacrifice on behalf of one’s fellow man.