Internet giants given one hour deadline to take down terrorist propaganda

Internet giants Google, Facebook and Twitter are facing renewed pressure to tackle the problem of terrorist propaganda online after the European Commission (EC) gave them just a one hour deadline to remove offensive content from their pages or face penalties. The EC's demand comes at a time when the major search and social media companies are being urged to do more to censor inappropriate or illegal material posted by users and hosted on their domains. "Considering that terrorist content is most harmful in the first hours of its appearance online, all companies should remove such content within one hour from its referral as a general rule," the EC said in a statement. The commission will also ask companies to report back on the degree of co-operation they receive from other organisations in order to determine whether stricter legislation is necessary. Most online media companies have clear rules in place warning users against publishing hate speech and routinely investigate and remove troubling content as soon as it is reported by users.