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Internet firms should block extreme content automatically

Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to tell the UN General Assembly in New York of plans to develop new technology to stop terrorist material appearing on the web. With French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni due to support the move, May will recognise the progress made by the biggest internet companies towards stopping the spread of terrorist content, but will urge that more needs to be done ‘to stop the spread of evil material’. Alongside developing ‘new technological solutions to prevent such content being uploaded in the first place’, May will also urge companies to target material that does appear online and remove it within one to two hours, because of this being the most likely period in which the material is disseminated. Companies such as Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter will be attending the event, having agreed to the establishment of a new Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism in June this year. May is expected to say: “Terrorist groups are aware that links to their propaganda are being removed more quickly, and are placing a greater emphasis on disseminating content at speed in order to stay ahead. Industry needs to go further and faster in automating the detection and removal of terrorist content online, and developing technological solutions which prevent it being uploaded in the first place.”

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