UK to complain at G7 that Google and Facebook should do more to fight terror

Prime Minister Theresa May will take her beef with Google and Facebook to the Group of Seven meeting in Sicily, where the UK leader will call on Internet companies to do more to fight terrorism and take extremist material offline.

In the wake of the Manchester bombing, the prime minister will say that companies should develop tools to automatically identify and remove material based on what it contains and who has posted it -- and help the authorities identify and catch extremists, according to a senior British official speaking on condition of anonymity to preview the plan.

May believes Facebook and others are not doing enough and wants tech firms to block users who post extremist content. Where there’s evidence that the material is harmful, she wants them to report this material to the relevant authorities.

She will argue that the tech industry has a social responsibility to remove all harmful, extremist content from its networks, as she leads a discussion on countering terrorism at the G-7 summit at the site of an ancient Greek theatre.