The UK government is in talks with web firms to block access to online ‘extremist’ material hosted abroad ‘at a network level’ in a bid to thwart the ‘radicalisation’ of impressionable youngsters.
According to the Home Office minister James Brokenshire, who has drawn up the plans, the proposed move could also ban user access to some types of pornography, in addition to blocking extremist videos on services including YouTube and Facebook in the UK.
"Terrorist propaganda online has a direct impact on the radicalisation of individuals and we work closely with internet service providers (ISPs) to remove terrorist material hosted in the UK or overseas," Brokenshire told the Mail Online.
"Through proposals from the Extremism Taskforce announced by the Prime Minister in November, we will look to further restrict access to material that is hosted overseas – but illegal under UK law – and help identify other harmful content to be included in family-friendly filters."
The latest plan comes amid fears that fighters coming back to the UK will look for radicalising young men particularly to instigate terrorist attacks both at homeland and overseas.
Currently, the police and the Crown Prosecution Service can order that extremist videos hosted online in the UK can be barred.
Search engines including Google and Yahoo were under fire for not working hard to close hate-filled sites amid the Woolwich attack on Drummer Lee Rigby last year, and a taskforce was also established to inspect the government’s policy to deal with extremism and radicalisation.
The Home Office is also seeking facilitating users to report extremist content online, by insisting industry to detect harmful extremist content and add it in family-friendly filters.
