Social Networks Are 'Failing' To Tackle Terrorists - MPs

Social media giants are "passing the buck" and not doing enough to tackle people who use their networks to promote terrorism, MPs (BSE: MPSLTD.BO - news) say.

Companies including Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB - news) , Twitter (Frankfurt: A1W6XZ - news) and Google are "consciously failing" to tackle the problem, and leaving parts of the web "ungoverned and lawless", a Commons report said.

The Home Affairs Select Committee warned that the popular sites are "the vehicle of choice in spreading propaganda" and have become the "recruiting platforms for terrorism".

Chairman Keith Vaz said forums, message boards and social media platforms are "the lifeblood of Daesh" - also known as Islamic State (IS).

He said: "Huge corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter, with their billion-dollar incomes, are consciously failing to tackle this threat and passing the buck by hiding behind their supranational legal status, despite knowing that their sites are being used by the instigators of terror.

"The companies' failure to tackle this threat has left some parts of the internet ungoverned, unregulated and lawless."

He said it is "alarming" that teams of "only a few hundred" people are employed to monitor billions of accounts.

The report also adds that Twitter does not proactively report extremist content to law enforcement agencies.

Figures have shown that a British police team is removing extremist content at a rate of nearly 300 pieces every day.

Last week it emerged that authorities had struggled to get cleric Anjem Choudary's online posts taken down, even after he was arrested for inviting support for IS.

Choudary was convicted and is facing jail . His Twitter account, which had amassed 32,000 followers, is no longer visible.

The MPs want major social networks to publish quarterly statistics showing how many sites and accounts they have taken down and why.

The report said Twitter, Facebook and Google all told the committee they took their responsibilities in the area very seriously and co-operated with security agencies as necessary.