British govt to request information from web giants on extremists

The British government summoned Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft to a meeting where officials will ask the tech giants to surrender details of those who post inflammatory web content, the Daily Mail reported.

Downing Street policy chiefs are scheduled to meet with the firms as they request more information to aid in the track down of extremists responsible for radicalizing young British Muslims.

However, sources said the companies are reluctant out of fear of being labeled as policy informants.

The internet has been a key-recruitment policy used by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants who have convinced a growing number of British Muslims to travel to Syria to join their ranks, the Mail reported.

British ISIS militants are active on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook where they work to attract more youths.

While internet companies remove offensive or content that may be in violation of anti-terror laws, they refuse to disclose information on content providers unless asked by detectives.

Two key proposals will be made during the meeting, which will we be chaired by David Cameron's policy chief Jo Johnson, sources said.

The first one, according to the Mail, will urge internet companies to surrender all details they have about individual who has posted an inflammatory video, tweet, or Facebook message, which includes their names, username, emails, and IP addresses in addition to any other data that can be used by British police to track them down.

Current internet company policy will see the removal of illegal content and the deletion of their personal information.
Law enforcement can only acquire the information through an individual request for an investigation.

The proposal will request that internet companies automatically hand over the personal details of those posting extremist material. The information will be collected in a national database, which police and security agencies can refer to.