http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=SWPFJTY1PKVGXQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2007/11/07/nutube107.xmlYouTube asked to curb terror videos
By Duncan Gardham and Caroline Gammell
Last Updated: 2:27am GMT 08/11/2007
The YouTube website is facing calls to crack down on extremist videos promoting violence after it emerged it was being used to post footage of Islamic fighters with guns and rocket launchers.
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Videos were available on the site which had been posted by the British group ASWJ, an off-shoot of al-Muhajiroun, an organisation once led by the radical preacher Omar Bakri and now banned in Britain.
The films are part of a growing wealth of extremist material being found on video-sharing sites and the internet which promote a radical agenda to young Muslim men.
IslamBase - which is registered in Glasgow but uses a server in the Netherlands - carries speeches by radical preachers such as Abu Hamza, Omar Bakri and Abu Qatada.
Gilles de Kerchove, the European Commission's anti-terrorism coordinator, has said he wants to tighten legislation across the continent to try to target the grooming of young Muslims for terrorism over the internet.
It comes after the first major speech by Jonathan Evans, the new head of MI5, in which he focused on the efforts by al-Qa'eda to recruit teenagers as young as 15.
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But opposition leaders in Britain pointed out that legislation was already in place to target those promoting violence in the name of Islam but it has not been used.
David Davis, the shadow home secretary said: "The Government already has a very broad range of criminal offences to prosecute internet-based extremism and incitement. We need a Government with the resolve to enforce the criminal law we have - not another tier of legislation from Brussels."
Neil Doyle, a specialist on the use of the internet by terrorists, said: "The problem is that it is easy to disguise the locations and who operates the websites and you find that if they go off air, they pop up again on another server in another part of the world."
Franco Frattini, the Justice Commissioner who unveiled the EU plans, described the internet as a "virtual training camp" for terrorist recruiters and "an ideal complement to off-line indoctrination and training".
Under the EU proposals there would be a criminal offence of "public provocation to commit a terrorist offence", which would include "the distribution, or otherwise making available, of a message to the public, with the intent to incite" acts of terrorism.
The plans would need the approval of all 27 EU governments and would carry a minimum jail term across the continent.
The Home Office welcomed the proposals but said Britain already has legislation under the Terrorism Act 2006 which includes offences of "disseminating terror-related knowledge" and "indirect incitement to terrorism", both of which carry a maximum seven-year sentence.
A spokesman for YouTube said: "The Internet gives everyone the opportunity to speak and be heard but by making it easier for people to express themselves the web also raises cultural and political concerns.
"That's why we make it easy for users to flag content they believe violates our terms and conditions - and where it does, we remove it. We also work with the relevant local legal authorities when it comes to content that may break local laws." Read
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