![]() The fact that terrorists use the internet is obvious and I have not sought to describe how they do so. But only one person has to date been prosecuted in the UK for an attack “…designed seriously to interfere with or seriously to disrupt an electronic system”, and that related to a physical plot to damage transmitter masts. It is true that embedded within the Terrorism Act 2000’s definition of terrorism is a type of terrorist action that would neatly fit a terrorist cyberattack, and there are cases of successful cyber attacks carried out by terrorists or hackers aligned to proscribed organisations. As I discuss in Chapter 7, the commission of these terrorism offences is so easy that it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between terrorists (who deserve the full attention of counter- terrorism police) and those whose actions may be criminal but fall below the threshold at which national security is engaged.ġ.6. The 2006 Act created the offences of encouraging terrorism, and disseminating terrorist publications, and made them directly applicable to defendants who used electronic systems to make terrorist content accessible to the public. Aside from additions to sections 13 (displaying articles associated with proscribed groups) and 58 (streaming of information useful to terrorists) Terrorism Act 2000, the key provisions are found in the Terrorism Act 2006. Terrorism laws contains relatively little express reference to online activity or content. So much depends on the role of tech companies, and comparatively less on the role of law enforcement and public bodies.ġ.4. ![]() Alongside the assessment of legislation, I have attempted to describe how online counter-terrorism operates in the real world and sought to answer some questions which are easy to ask but difficult to answer. 20 years after dial-up modems and the enactment of the Terrorism Act 2000 is a good time to report on whether terrorism laws still measure up.ġ.3. Terrorism legislation in the UK is largely the product of laws designed to detect and inhibit organised terrorist groups in Northern Ireland. This is my fourth annual report on the operation of terrorism legislation in the UK, and it comes with a specifically online perspective.ġ.2. I question why the Online Safety Bill excludes terrorism content from heightened child-specific duties.ġ.1. The report examines the means available in the UK to encourage or mandate content moderation by tech companies. Tech companies are central to the use of the internet to commit terrorism offences and to the presence of terrorism content in our lives. ![]() There are more individuals with poor mental health or neurodivergence whose risk and needs must be managed, even in the context of serious and sophisticated counter- terrorism measures like TPIMs. Online terrorism requires a new approach to the assessment of terrorist risk. I consider diversionary options but also look critically at whether the modern slavery defence does (and ought to) apply for children where terrorist prosecution is required. Online content is drawing more and more children into the terrorism and counter- terrorism sphere. ![]() The internet has provided new opportunities to investigate suspected terrorism by picking through masses of online data but this requires new safeguards in context of remote access, retention and deletion, and biometrics. It asks and tries to answer: What is online radicalisation? How relevant are terrorist organisations? What values and standards should guide online counter-terrorism? Who is a “member of the public” online? This annual report on the operation of the Terrorism Acts during 2021 seeks to describe UK and international machinery for countering terrorist content online and reviews the application of UK terrorism legislation in the online context. The internet is the new frontier for counter-terrorism. on behalf of the Controller of His Majesty’s Stationery Office EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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