UK Prime Minister Theresa May has been criticised by digital rights groups after calling for increased internet regulation by the Government in the wake of the London Bridge terror attack on Saturday night.

Digital campaigners the Open Rights Group said it was disappointing the Prime Minister had focused on regulation of the internet and encryption in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack.

The group said: “This could be a very risky approach. If successful, Theresa May could push these vile networks into even darker corners of the web, where they will be even harder to see.

“But we should not be distracted: the internet and companies like Facebook are not a cause of this hatred and violence, but tools that can be abused.
“While governments and companies should take sensible measures to stop abuse, attempts to control the internet is not the simple solution that Theresa May is claiming.”

Professor Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre For The Study Of Radicalisation at King’s College London, also slammed May’s speech.

He wrote: “Big social media platforms have cracked down on jihadist accounts, with result that most jihadists are now using end-to-end encrypted messenger platforms e.g. Telegram. This has not solved the problem, just made it different. Moreover, few people are radicalised exclusively online. Blaming social media platforms is politically convenient but intellectually lazy. In other words, May’s statement may have sounded strong but contained very little that is actionable, different, or new.”