Yvette Cooper calls for tech companies to take responsibility for removing harmful material online following the Southport attack. The Home Secretary emphasizes the 'moral responsibility' of tech giants and highlights the Online Safety Act's role in enforcing stricter measures.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has condemned the continued availability of extreme content online, calling it a 'total disgrace' in the wake of the Southport killing. Cooper spoke to LBC on Sunday Morning with Lewis Goodall, emphasizing that tech companies have a 'moral responsibility' to remove harmful and illegal material from their platforms.
She stated that discussions are ongoing with major tech companies like X (formerly Twitter), Meta, TikTok, and Google, but some of the flagged content remains accessible. Cooper cited the case of Axel Rudakubana, who was sentenced to 52 years in prison for his attack in Southport. Rudakubana possessed an Al Qaeda training manual found online and had accessed a video of a knife attack on a bishop in Australia before carrying out his crime. In her letter to tech companies, Cooper stressed the government's stance that the ease of access to such dangerous content is 'unacceptable'. She promised that 'new, stronger enforcement' will be implemented through the Online Safety Act, expected to be enacted later this year. This legislation will grant Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, the power to take action against platforms that fail to remove illegal material. Cooper emphasized that tech companies, with their significant resources and technological capabilities, have a duty to prioritize user safety. She also highlighted the government's commitment to combatting AI-generated child sexual abuse, making it a criminal offense to possess AI tools designed to create such images. This action aims to address the growing threat of online child sexual abuse and prevent its potential escalation into real-life harm
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper Online Safety Tech Companies Axel Rudakubana Southport Killing AI-Generated Child Abuse
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