Michael Fallon calls on web giants to ban terror manuals

Web giants must take down terror manuals and stop helping jihadists inflict mass bloodshed on British soil, the Defence Secretary declared last night.

Sir Michael Fallon’s comments come after the Daily Mail revealed bomb-making manuals were still easily available despite repeated calls for internet giants to remove links to the sites.

Guides of how to build a bomb similar to the device used on the London Tube on Friday were still accessible via Google last night – more than 48 hours after the Mail alerted the firm.

Speaking from Qatar, where he was agreeing a deal to sell Typhoon jets, Sir Michael called for the guides to be removed.

He said: ‘They [web giants] need to do much more. We expect these technology providers to help us in the fight against terrorism and not make it easier.

‘They need to be part of this fight against terrorism and that means they need to help us stop the dissemination of this evil cult that seeks to inspire terrorist atrocities in our cities.

‘They also need to take down the information that allows terrorists, for example, to start constructing the sort of devices we saw on the underground so they need to play their part.’

Theresa May – who said ‘enough is enough’ after the London Bridge atrocity in June – will put fresh pressure on Google, Facebook and Microsoft this week, when she and French president Emmanuel Macron host an anti-extremism summit in New York.

Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured) is set to put pressure on some of the internet giants such as Google and Facebook 

Speaking to US broadcaster ABC News, Mrs May said the internet firms needed ‘to do more’.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the Commons’ home affairs select committee, said: ‘The internet giants have made it much harder for people to find child-abuse images online. It’s time they showed the same commitment to tackling terrorism.’ Google said it worked to remove links to illegal content from its search results.