Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit
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The Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) was set up in 2010 by ACPO (and run by the
Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
) to remove unlawful terrorist material content from the Internet, with a specific focus on UK based material. CTIRU works with internet platforms to identify content which breaches their terms of service and requests that they remove the content on a voluntary basis. CTIRU also compile a list of URLs for material hosted outside the UK which are blocked on networks of the public estate. To date (as of December 2017), CTIRU is linked to the removal of 300,000 pieces of "illegal terrorist material" from the internet.


Scope

The December 2013 report of the Prime Minister's Extremism Taskforce said that it would "work with internet companies to restrict access to terrorist material online which is hosted overseas but illegal under UK law" and "work with the internet industry to help them in their continuing efforts to identify extremist content to include in family-friendly filters" which would likely involve lobbying ISPs to add the CTIRU list to their filters without the need for additional legislation. CTIRU hold responsibility for the implementation of aspects of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, and are the custodians of the CTIRU list - a continuously updated proscribed list of websites that is considered under the act to be illegal to access or attempt to access. The CTIRU list details URLs that, for one reason or another, cannot or will not be removed from ISP's or search engines. The list is one of the strategies employed by the Government as part of its drive to implement the "Prevent" legislation. As of September 2016, all Schools, childcare facilities or organisations that provide care or facilities for children under the age of 18 in the UK, have a statutory duty to ensure their systems cannot be used to access any of these websites by using firewall technology or service providers that are members of the IWF (Internet Watch Foundation) and ensuring that the technology prevents access to sites featured on the CTIRU list.


Legal basis

CTIRU makes an assessment of the legality of material before referring it on to platforms to consider it for removal: :"I underline the fact that any online activity by the three groups under consideration, including Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, has been referred to CTIRU. If it is assessed as illegal — there is a legal test that has to be met — CTIRU will flag it directly to Facebook and Twitter for removal." CTIRU appear to assess content on the basis of UK terror legislation: :"All referrals are assessed by CTIRU against UK terrorism legislation (
Terrorism Act 2000 The Terrorism Act 2000 (c.11) is the first of a number of general Terrorism Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It superseded and repealed the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989 and the Northern Ireland (Emer ...
and
2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
). Those that breach this legislation are referred to industry for removal. If industry agrees that it breaches their terms and conditions, they remove it voluntarily." Such a notice and assessment would provide "actual knowledge" of criminality by a platform, meaning that a platform would no longer be able to rely upon the defence available as part of the
E-Commerce Directive The e-Commerce Directive, adopted in 2000, sets up an Internal Market framework for online services. Its aim is to remove obstacles to cross-border online services in the EU internal market and provide legal certainty for businesses and consumer ...
that they are an intermediary "hosting" content without an awareness of it. Therefore, although a notice sent by CTIRU to a platform - requesting the removal of content - may request compliance on a voluntary basis, such a notice may also act to ensure that a platform is able to be considered as a "publisher" of the content for the purposes of future legal action if the notice is not complied with.


See also

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Internet censorship in the United Kingdom Internet censorship in the United Kingdom is conducted under a variety of laws, judicial processes, administrative regulations and voluntary arrangements. It is achieved by blocking access to sites as well as the use of laws that criminalise pub ...
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Web blocking in the United Kingdom The precise number of websites blocked in the United Kingdom is unknown. Blocking techniques vary from one Internet service provider (ISP) to another with some sites or specific URLs blocked by some ISPs and not others. Websites and services are ...


References

{{UK policing units Counterterrorism in the United Kingdom Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom Internet censorship in the United Kingdom