UK Home Office Sets Out Plan to Force ISPs into Blocking Extremist Websites

The Government’s Home Office has today published a new report from the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Tackling Radicalisation and Extremism, which proposes to force broadband ISPs into helping identify and block websites that contain “extremist content“.

The Home Office has repeatedly touted plans to block “extremist” content using Internet filtering technologies, which started in 2011 with the anti-terrorism Prevent Strategy (here). The proposal foresaw a solution that could work in a similar way to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which voluntarily filters out (censors) illegal online child abuse content with the help of ISPs.

Extract from the Task Force’s Report

“Extremist propaganda is too widely available, particularly online, and has a direct impact on radicalising individuals. The poisonous messages of extremists must not be allowed to drown out the voices of the moderate majority“.

The Task Force has agreed to:

* Build the capabilities of communities and civil society organisations so that they can campaign against the large volume of extremist material, including online.

* Work with internet companies to restrict access to terrorist material online which is hosted overseas but illegal under UK law.

* Improve the process for public reporting of extremist content online.

* Work with the internet industry to help them in their continuing efforts to identify extremist content to include in family-friendly filters.

* Look at using existing powers to exclude from the UK those who post extremist material online who are based overseas.

Few people would have any serious objection to the principal of blocking either child sexual abuse content or websites that clearly contain terrorist material. However Internet filtering is extremely easy to circumvent and it’s therefore perhaps unrealistic to think that those who share “extremist” views would not know how to Google up a solution.

The other issue is who decides what is and is not “extremist” and how can you appeal an unfair block? For example, there’s a significant fear that clubs for model rocket builders could easily end up being blocked alongside more serious jihadist material. Similarly YouTube videos showing chemical reactions for educational purposes might also be caught up in the measures.

This may be one reason why the Government are known to favour an approach that would mirror the IWF, which would put hopefully responsible and accountable people in charge of categorising the necessary content instead of commercial companies.