Today, Tech Against Terrorism commended the action taken by the Crown Prosecution Service as it charged a man with intending to stir up racial hatred relating to alleged posts on Facebook. This demonstrates that crimes committed online are no different from those committed offline.
6 August 2024 - Today marks the first prosecution for posting allegedly criminal messages linked to the riots. While we must let the court process run its course, the action against the alleged crime should send a clear message to individuals thinking they can hide behind relative online obscurity.
Adam Hadley, Executive Director of Tech Against Terrorism, said: “Crimes committed online should be treated no differently from offline crimes. The post-Southport riots we have witnessed across the UK demonstrate the intrinsic link between the two. Tech platforms bear some responsibility for what has happened, but the most effective action is to pursue the individuals instigating violence and hatred online, leading to very real and destructive consequences in the real world. We call on the government to give law enforcement the additional personnel and resources including more advanced open-source intelligence and AI tools needed to investigate online crimes.”
Tech Against Terrorism’s Threat Intelligence Assessment So Far
Tech Against Terrorism has been monitoring the surge of online extremist activity since the Southport attacks last week. All tech platforms have been exploited, but X and Telegram have been particularly vulnerable to disinformation and coordination of violence.
While Tech Against Terrorism has attempted to report several items of content breaching X's guidelines, the platform needs to improve its reporting methods significantly and be more effective in taking down harmful content.
We have also identified multiple extremist Southport-related Telegram channels emerging and being subsequently blocked or removed this morning. Content in these channels included lists of immigration and refugee advice centres and charities, racist memes, and in some instances, terrorist content, for example, multiple posts sharing footage of the 2019 Christchurch attack livestream.
While some of these channels appear to be the subject of active disruption, Telegram and UK authorities need to be persistent. The longer these channels persist on the platform, the higher the likelihood of users engaging in extremist Southport-related content and contributing to the potential radicalisation of others in these spaces. Without a sustained removal effort of Telegram channels, copycat channels will emerge.