Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assistance his Department has (a) requested and (b) received from the European Counter-Terrorism Centre on removing online terrorist propaganda.

The UK continues to lead international efforts to prevent terrorist use of the internet. In the UK, the Metropolitan Police Service’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) refers content to online platforms that is assessed to contravene those platforms’ terms and conditions. Following referrals from CTIRU, online platforms have removed over 300,000 pieces of terrorist-related material since its inception in February 2010.

This successful model was replicated within the EU as a response to the international nature of the online threat. The UK was instrumental in the formation of the European Union Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU), which went live in July 2015 following the Charlie Hebdo attacks. The EU IRU is one initiative of the European Counter-Terrorism Centre, part of Europol.

The UK continues to work closely with the EU and other international partners to push industry to take a more proactive approach to detecting and removing terrorist content from their platforms. The UK and the EU IRU share information, evidence and best practice on an ongoing basis to prevent terrorist use of the internet.