The European Parliament on Wednesday (28 April) formally adopted without a vote controversial legislation which forces online platforms to remove terrorist content within an hour of it being flagged.
The regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online, which was adopted in the face of opposition from several organisations and MEPs, includes an obligation for digital platforms to remove “terrorist content or disable access to terrorist content in all member states as soon as possible and in any event within one hour of receipt of the removal order.”
These “removal orders” must come from the “competent authority” of each EU country and can be addressed to all member states.
Tech digs in for long domestic terror fight
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
With domestic extremist networks scrambling to regroup online, experts fear the next attack could come from a radicalized individual much harder than coordinated mass events for law enforcement and platforms to detect or deter.
The big picture: Companies like Facebook and Twitter stepped up enforcement and their conversations with law enforcement ahead of Inauguration Day. But they ll be tested as the threat rises that impatient lone-wolf attackers will lash out.
Where it stands: Without any apparent large scale event in the immediate future, there is always a risk that radicalized individuals may feel themselves compelled to act out, said Jared Holt, a visiting research fellow with the Atlantic Council.
Sur Telegram, l extrême droite prête à convertir les partisans de Trump france24.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from france24.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
How Trump supporters are radicalised by the far right Mark Townsend Home Affairs Editor
Far right “playbooks” teaching white nationalists how to recruit and radicalise Trump supporters have surfaced on the encrypted messaging app Telegram ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration.
The documents, seen by the
Observer, detail how to convert mainstream conservatives who have just joined Telegram into violent white supremacists. They were found last week by Tech Against Terrorism, an initiative launched by the UN counter terrorism executive directorate.
Large numbers of Trump supporters migrated on to Telegram in recent days after Parler, the social media platform favoured by the far right, was forced offline for hosting threats of violence and racist slurs after the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January.
POLITICO
Many are taking their cues from the fact that the president still has not conceded.
A vast swath of the president’s diehard base has disregarded Trump’s remarks, where he has instructed his followers to not engage in political violence. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo
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President Donald Trump has instructed his followers to not engage in political violence following the deadly riots on the Capitol on Jan 6. But the video in which he made the plea has barely made a dent in the groundswell of extremism that was seen last week and has proliferated online since.
A vast swath of the president’s diehard base in MAGA Nation the conspiracy theorists, the militia members, and the followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory has disregarded Trump’s Wednesday remarks. Instead, they are dissecting his phrases and using those cues as rallying cries, doubling down on their plans to keep the MAGA movement going after Trump leaves the White House.