News

Remove extremist material within 24 hours

An amendment put forward for inclusion in new counter terror legislation urges for media sites to be required by law to take down extremist material within 24 hours of receiving a complaint. Proposed by the Labour MP Stephen Doughty, the addition to the counter terrorism bill has similarities with the ‘takedown’ laws implemented in Germany last year and would tackle the issue of a wide variety of extremist content remaining online despite repeated warnings. The amendment would also require tech companies to proactively check content for extremist material and take it down within six hours of it being identified. Home Secretary Sajid Javid stated earlier this month that the Home Office would place a ‘renewed emphasis on engagement’ with internet providers and work with the tech industry ‘to seek more investment in technologies that automatically identify and remove terrorist content before it is accessible to all’. Doughty said: “If these companies can remove copyrighted video or music content from companies like Disney within a matter of hours, there is no excuse for them to be failing to do so for extremist material. It is clear we now need a robust regulatory system and appropriate sanctions to require proactive investigation by tech companies of what they are hosting and swift takedown of content and accounts which glorify and encourage terrorist organisations and extremist views.”

Partners

View the latest
digital issue