By Charles Riley LONDON (CNNMoney) — Prime Minister Theresa May has called for closer regulation of the internet following a deadly terror attack in London.<\/b>
\nBy Charles Riley
LONDON (CNNMoney) \u2014 Prime Minister Theresa May has called for closer regulation of the internet following a deadly terror attack in London.
At least seven people were killed in a short but violent assault that unfolded late Saturday night in the heart of the capital, the third such attack to hit Britain this year.
May said on Sunday that a new approach to tackling extremism is required, including changes that would deny terrorists and extremist sympathizers digital tools used to communicate and plan attacks.
\u201cWe cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed, \u201d May said. \u201cYet that is precisely what the internet and the big companies that provide internet-based services provide.\u201d
\u201cWe need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning, \u201d she continued. \u201cWe need to do everything we can at home to reduce the risks of extremism online.\u201d
May\u2019s call for new internet regulations was part of a larger strategy to combat terror, including what she described as \u201cfar too much tolerance of extremism in our country.\u201d
It was not immediately clear how May would crack down on social media and internet firms, but she has long been an advocate of increased government surveillance powers.
Not everyone is convinced that additional restrictions would be effective.
Peter Neumann, a professor who studies political violence and radicalization at King\u2019s College in London, said that blaming social media is \u201cpolitically convenient but intellectually lazy.\u201d
Neumann said that few people are radicalized exclusively online. And efforts by major social media firms to crack down on extremists accounts have pushed their conversations off public sites and onto encrypted messaging platforms.
\u201cThis has not solved problem, just made it different, \u201d he said on Twitter.
The attack comes as tech giants come under increased pressure in Europe over their policing of violent and hate speech.
Europe\u2019s top regulator released data last week that showed that Twitter has failed to take down a majority of hate speech posts after they had been flagged. Facebook and YouTube fared better, removing 66% of reported hate speech.
On Sunday, Twitter pointed to data that showed it suspended more than 375,000 accounts in the second half of 2016 for violations related to the promotion of terrorism.
\u201cTerrorist content has no place on Twitter, \u201d said Nick Pickles, Twitter\u2019s head of public policy in the U. K., in a statement to CNNMoney. Pickles said the company will \u201cnever stop working\u201d on the issue.
Google said that it \u201cshares the government\u2019s commitment to ensuring terrorists do not have a voice online\u201d and said it was working with its partners to \u201cto tackle these challenging and complex problems.\u201d
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the U. K., a parliamentary committee report published last month alleged that social media firms have prioritized profit over user safety by continuing to host unlawful content. The report also called for \u201cmeaningful fines\u201d if the companies do not quickly improve.
\u201cThe biggest and richest social media companies are shamefully far from taking sufficient action to tackle illegal and dangerous content, \u201d the report said. \u201cGiven their immense size, resources and global reach, it is completely irresponsible of them to fail to abide by the law.\u201d
Forty-eight people were injured in Saturday\u2019s attack on London Bridge and Borough Market. Police officers pursued and shot dead three attackers within eight minutes of the first emergency call, London police said.
\u2014 Ivana Kottasov\u00e1 contributed reporting.<\/p>\n

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