UK lawmakers slam social networks over extremist content

A panel of UK lawmakers had termed as ''alarming'' that social networking companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube had teams of only a few hundred employees to monitor billions of accounts for 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,'' said a report released in the UK by the Home Affairs Committee appointed by the House of Commons.

If these companies failed to tackle the issue and allowed their services to become the 'Wild West' of the internet, their reputation as responsible operators would be eroded, it added.

According to the report, the use of the internet to promote radicalisation and terror was one of the biggest threats faced by countries including the UK.

The report found Twitter was especially lax in reporting extremist content to law enforcement agencies.

The committee termed the suspension by Twitter of 125,000 accounts worldwide linked to terrorists between mid-2015 and February 2016, as a ''drop in the ocean.'' It also similarly slammed Google's removal in 2014 of over 14 million videos worldwide that related to all kinds of abuse.

Social media companies are "consciously failing" to combat groups using their services to promote extremism, say MPs.

The Home Affairs Select Committee said firms including Facebook, Twitter and Google, which owns YouTube, must show "a greater sense of responsibility".

The three companies have each said they take their role in combating extremism and terrorism very seriously.

The MPs said, "Networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were the vehicle of choice in spreading propaganda and had become the recruiting platforms for terrorism.

"They must accept that the hundreds of millions in revenues generated from billions of people using their products needs to be accompanied by a greater sense of responsibility and ownership for the impact that extremist material on their sites is having."