Home Secretary's fury over refusal to remove violent videos viewed by Southport killer

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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said it is “frankly disgraceful” that online social media giants have failed to remove violent material viewed by the Southport killer.

In a letter to X, Meta, TikTok, Google, and YouTube, Ms Cooper said the ease of access to such content, including an al-Qaeda training manual, was “unacceptable” and that the firms had a “moral responsibility to act” to ensure it does not inspire further attacks.

However, she claims her plea has been ignored, saying: “There been some further content contact with some of those social media companies, but our understanding is that much of that material is still available online.

“I think, frankly, that is disgraceful because I think they have a moral responsibility to act.”

The Mirror reports that when asked if she was angry, Ms Cooper said: “I really am, because we had the most horrendous crime and responsibility for that crime lies with the perpetrator who is now in prison.

“But there is still a responsibility on everyone to do what they can to keep people safe and to address this, this wider problem that we have about a growing violent extremism among teenagers.”

Axel Rudakubana was jailed for 52 years last month after pleading guilty to murdering Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, at a dance class in July.

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As well as the three killings, Rudakubana pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults injured in the attack.

Searches of his home uncovered material which suggested an obsession with violence, including the academic study of an al-Qaeda training manual downloaded from the internet.

Police have said Rudakubana used techniques set out in the manual when he carried out the attack.

Shortly before leaving home to carry out the attack, Rudakubana had watched sickening footage of an attack on a Bishop in Australia. Although this was removed there, it can still be accessed in the UK.

Ms Cooper went on: “The new Online Safety Act measures come in this spring, and that will mean that there will be a legal requirement on companies to remove illegal content to have systems to do so, they will face penalties.”

And she said the Government is prepared to “go further” if online giants do not comply.

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