Social media firms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are “consciously failing” to stop their sites from being used to promote terrorism and recruit extremists, U.K. lawmakers claimed in a report released on Thursday.
The Commons home affairs select committee, which is made up of British members of parliament (MPs), said that U.S. platforms have become the “vehicle of choice in spreading propaganda” and urged the technology giants to do more to remove extremist content.
“These companies are hiding behind their supranational legal status to pass the parcel of responsibility and refusing to act responsibly in case they damage their brands,” the report said.
“If they continue to fail to tackle this issue and allow their platforms to become the ‘Wild West’ of the internet, then it will erode their reputation as responsible operators.”
The lawmakers’ accusations come after British authorities made a number of attempts to get Twitter posts and YouTube videos by radical Muslim preacher Anjem Choudary taken offline. Choudary was found guilty by a U.K. court last week of supporting Islamic State.
Read more at NBC.com
Image courtesy of marketingland.com
Social media firms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are “consciously failing” to stop their sites from being used to promote terrorism and recruit extremists, U.K. lawmakers claimed in a report released on Thursday.
The Commons home affairs select committee, which is made up of British members of parliament (MPs), said that U.S. platforms have become the “vehicle of choice in spreading propaganda” and urged the technology giants to do more to remove extremist content.
“These companies are hiding behind their supranational legal status to pass the parcel of responsibility and refusing to act responsibly in case they damage their brands,” the report said.
“If they continue to fail to tackle this issue and allow their platforms to become the ‘Wild West’ of the internet, then it will erode their reputation as responsible operators.”
The lawmakers’ accusations come after British authorities made a number of attempts to get Twitter posts and YouTube videos by radical Muslim preacher Anjem Choudary taken offline. Choudary was found guilty by a U.K. court last week of supporting Islamic State.
Read more at NBC.com
Image courtesy of marketingland.com
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