Online jihadist propaganda attracts more clicks in Britain in any other European country and the main internet companies are failing to curb it, said a report published by the Policy Exchange think tank on Tuesday.
The report came as it is still in early days in the investigation into the Friday explosion at a packed, rush-hour carriage at a subway station in west London, which left 30 people injured.
“Jihadists have shown particular facility in exploring ungoverned or even inadequately governed spaces in the Islamic world,” said the report, referring to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
“It is clear that our counter-extremism efforts and other initiatives to combat extremism on line have, until now, been inadequate,” said the report. “There is no doubting the urgency of the matter. The status quo clearly is unacceptable.”
The report found that two thirds of British people believe that internet companies are doing too little to combat radicalization and three quarters want them to do more to remove extremism content.
In June, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube announced a global internet forum to tackle terrorism. They said that the collaboration would focus on technological solutions including A1 machine learning techniques, research and partnerships with governments and civic groups.
