Social media giants ignored terror cops’ pleas to remove Anjem Choudary’s hate-filled posts – even after his arrest for supporting ISIS
British authorities had no power to force corporations to remove material from the internet
SOCIAL media giants ignored repeated requests by anti-terror cops to remove Anjem Choudary’s online posts, even after he was arrested for inviting support for ISIS, the Old Bailey was told.
British authorities tried to get the preacher’s Twitter posts and YouTube videos taken down after an oath of allegiance to the group surfaced online with his name on it, jurors heard.
But they had no power to force corporations to remove material from the internet — even if it was believed that it fell foul of UK anti-terror laws.
An open source researcher from the National Counter Terrorism Police Operations Centre listed a string of failed attempts.
Choudary has more than 32,000 Twitter followers and his account can still be viewed, despite requests for its removal both last August and in March.
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The official — identified only by a number — had argued the account showed support for IS and breached Twitter rules on “threatening or promoting terrorism”, the court heard.
A request was sent to YouTube in June this year for the removal of a video entitled “Duties of the Kilafah by Anjem Choudary”, but the approach was refused.
A video called “The Caliphate will expand into Europe and US” was not referred because YouTube considered it “journalistic”.
The official also urged Twitter to remove the account of Choudary’s co-accused Mohammed Rahman.
This was finally done, but the officer said it did not seem to result from his request.
Meanwhile Facebook did agree to a request to delete Rahman’s profile in August last year.
Four of Rahman’s YouTube videos were taken down without interventions from British police.