G7 Countries Agrees With Tech Giants To Block Extremist Content Online

G7 countries and tech giants including Google, Facebook and Twitter have agreed to work together to block the distribution of extremist content over the internet.

The accord which was agreed to after a two-day meeting in Italy is aimed at removing jihadist content from the web within two hours of being posted.

The Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said: “These are the first steps towards a great alliance in the name of freedom” adding that internet plays a key role in extremist “recruitment, training and radicalisation.”

“Our enemies are moving at the speed of a tweet and we need to counter them just as quickly,” acting US Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke said.

While acknowledging progress had been made, Britain’s Home Secretary Amber Rudd insisted “companies need to go further and faster to not only take down extremist content but also stop it being uploaded in the first place”.

The meeting on the Italian island of Ischia off Naples also focused on ways to tackle one of the West’s biggest security threats — jihadist fighters fleeing Syria — as the European Union promised to help close a migration route considered a potential back door for terrorists.

Tens of thousands of citizens from Western countries travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for the Islamic State group between 2014 and 2016, including some who then returned home and staged attacks that claimed dozens of lives.