London officials to tell social media firms they must remove videos inciting and glorifying violence

[rasbridge]

4th April 2018, 11:24 am

 

 

VIOLENT videos online are fuelling murder and crime on Britain's streets and must be curbed, ministers are set to say.

In a fresh crackdown on extreme violence expected to be announced within weeks, the Home Secretary will demand social media firms take action quicker to prevent deaths.

Amber Rudd will call on them to act swiftly to remove content which normalises aggressive behaviour - through videos or messages.

She has been working with social media companies to persuade them to be more proactive with child sexual exploitation and terrorist content online.

And now she will turn her attention onto violent content too, demanding they step up to the plate.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "Gangs often post videos online that seek to incite violence or glamorise criminality to influence young people.

"The instant nature of social media also means that plans develop rapidly and disputes can escalate very quickly."

But Labour's Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said: "This Government has repeatedly failed to get the internet giants to act on serious crime, whether it's internet fraud, hate speech, child pornography or terrorism.

"Under the Tories, the police do not have the necessary resources to tackle this problem and simply asking social media companies to act on the promotion of violent crime is not enough."

A spokesperson for YouTube told the Sun today: "We do not allow videos that promote violence on YouTube. We work closely with organisations like the Metropolitan Police who understand and provide relevant context for videos, and we act quickly to review and remove them when they violate our policies.

"In the UK, we have developed policies specifically to help tackle knife and gang crime.

"We are also committed to working constructively with the Home Office on this issue, as we are doing with other organisations."

And Twitter said they expanded their rules at the end of last year to enforce more vigorously against violent content.

They said they did not allow any form of graphic violence on their platforms - including any imagery related to death, serious injury or violence.

Yesterday London Mayor Sadiq Khan faced calls to quit over London's spiralling murder rate - after another teenager was gunned down.

Londoners demanded answers from cops and politicians as the capital reeled when a 17-year-old girl became the 48th murder victims this year.

The teen - named locally as "Tanesha Melbourne" was gunned down in Tottenham last night. She died in her mum's arms, after being shot in a drive-by attack as she was "chilling out" with friends.

It came just minutes before a boy, 16-year-old Amaan Shakoor was shot just a few miles away.

It was feared that it was a revenge killing over a milkshake bar brawl, after mobile phone footage of a punch-up was revealed.

Cops swooped to retrieve CCTV of the fight reportedly filmed in Tinseltown diner in Farringdon, which appears to show three men punching and stomping on another man on the floor.

It is not known who those in the footage are, but the video was shared widely online with many people claiming it led to the shooting in Tottenham which claimed Tanesha's life.

Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, has told The Times that social media was driving young people to violence, as gang rivals "goad" each other online.

Emotional scenes unfolded on the street yesterday as Tanesha's family were overcome with grief at the tragedy.

Her distraught uncle Wayne had to be held back as he yelled: "You took a young girl's life, you need to be dead" while visiting the murder scene this afternoon.

Tanesha's aunt Rita also visited the scene, breaking down as she left flowers for her 17-year-old niece.

Speaking to media, Rita said: "We're going to stop these shootings we're going to stop these stabbings.

"It's not good enough, my niece is gone now. I'm going to bring the whole area to a standstill. My sister is in turmoil, it's terrible."

 

Source:  https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5969216/social-media-firms-must-remove-videos-inciting-and-glorifying-violence-to-stop-youths-attacking-each-other-amid-spate-of-murders-in-london/