Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions he has had with (a) social media companies and (b) other Cabinet colleagues on the potential viability of a 24-hour take down rule on social media content to tackle extremist content.

The Government has been clear that tech companies need to act more quickly to remove all forms of terrorist content. There can be no safe spaces for terrorists to promote and share their extreme views.

Home Office analysis shows that approximately a third of all links to Daesh propaganda are disseminated within an hour of upload. As a result, we work closely with industry to encourage them to proactively remove terrorist content within one hour of upload, secure the prevention of re-uploads and ultimately prevent new content from being made available to users in the first place.

The Home Secretary visited the West Coast of the US in June and November 2018, where he continued to press the companies to increase the use of technology to automate the detection and removal of content where possible. At the G7 Toronto 2018 the Security Minister met with leaders of major CSP’s.

It is not the Government's practice to provide details of Ministerial meetings which are held as part of the process of policy development and delivery.