A NEW APPEAL has come from the police to the public to work together to root out extremist messages from the internet. The message comes after four East Londoners were jailed for trying to groom 55 school students to help with terror attacks on London.
The UK Counter Terrorism Police (CTP) group their work with the public in a campaign called Action Counters Terrorism (ACT). As part of ACT, they have now launched the STOP campaign – to STOP Terrorists’ an Extremists’ online presence.
Since the CTP Unit was formed in 2010, it has had over 300,000 of terrorist material taken down from the internet and provided evidence and information to 226 counter terrorism investigations – but the Unit does not believe that is enough if it is to keep the public safe.
Commander Clarke Jarrett, head of the Counter Terrorism Command, said, “It’s vital that if the public see something online they think could be terrorist-related that they ACT and flag it up to us. Our Counter Terrorist Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) has specialist officers who not only take action to get content removed but also, increasingly, are in a position to look at those behind online content – which is leading to more and more investigations.”
While much of the terrorist material removed from the internet promotes Islamic extremism, there is a growing amount of extreme right wing material being removed too – and it now forms around 25% of material removed.
Commander Jarrett said, “…the public has a vital role to play in the fight against terrorism. I would urge anyone who comes across what they think could be extremist or terrorist material – whether it’s right wing, Islamist or indeed any other form of extremism – to report it to us. Our specialist officers can then assess the material and take appropriate action to potentially prevent further terrorist activity from happening.”
•Online terrorist-related material can be reported via: http://gov.uk/act
•Read more about it: East London terror gang sent to jail Met police on staying safe in terror attack
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