UK minister to meet Silicon Valley over online extremism
Britain's interior minister Amber Rudd will meet with tech leaders in California's Silicon Valley this week to try and combat online content inciting extremism, the government said Monday.
Rudd is expected to meet with social media sites and web giants including YouTube, after she flies into San Francisco.
In the wake of deadly terror attacks in London and Manchester, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced plans to clamp down on extremist content.
"The threat we face is evolving, rather than disappearing, as Daesh (the Islamic State jihadist group) loses ground in Iraq and Syria," a senior government source said.
"The fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet."
After four militant attacks in Britain which killed 36 people this year, senior ministers have repeatedly demanded that the world's biggest internet companies do more to suppress extremist content and allow access to encrypted communications.
May wants internet companies to develop tools to automatically identify and remove harmful material, based on what it contains and who posted it.
She would also like to see companies block users who post extremist content, and alert authorities when they identify content that could be harmful.
© 2017 AFP
