A furious Yvette Cooper today slammed social media companies for failing to remove violent videos watched by killer Axel Rudakubana ahead of the Southport murders.
The 18-year-old was last month sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in prison for his evil killing of three young girls at a dance class in in Merseyside last July.
In the wake of Rudakubana’s sentencing, the Government reminded tech firms of their ‘moral responsibility’ to act on violent content on their platforms.
But the Home Secretary this morning revealed videos watched by Rudakubana are still online despite her pleas for them to be removed.
It has been revealed how, minutes before he left to travel to the dance class, the killer searched online for a knife attack on a bishop in Sydney, , in April last year.
Rudakubana searched X for ‘Mar Mari Emmanuel stabbing’ – an incident that saw Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and five others stabbed.
His internet browsing history on a laptop was deleted shortly before he went out.
Ms Cooper said it was ‘disgraceful’ that material watched by Rudakubana was still available online.
The Home Secretary told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: ‘There has been some further contact with some of the social media companies.
‘But our understanding is that many of those materials… that material is still available online.
‘I think, frankly, that is disgraceful, because I think they have a moral responsibility to act.’
New measures in the Online Safety Act will help with efforts to take down such material when they come into force in a few months’ time, Ms Cooper said.
She added: ‘We need to bring in the requirements to make sure we’ve got those legal powers in place and we will implement that.
‘We are being clear that we are prepared to go further if the Online Safety Act measures are not working as effectively as we need them to do.
‘I would just say again, it is a moral responsibility on these tech companies to protect our children.
‘When you have one of the most horrendous crimes imaginable and when there is evidence that there is material online that was a part of that crime, I really think they have a moral responsibility to act.’
Asked if she was angry, the Home Secretary replied: ‘I really am. We’ve had the most horrendous crime of all.
‘The 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 wider problem that we have about a growing violent extremism among teenagers.’
Ms Cooper said the public inquiry into the Southport murders would need to look at online material and online ‘radicalisation’ of Islamist, far-right or violent offenders.
The Home Secretary and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle last weekend wrote to tech firms about content on their platforms.
In the letter, Elon Musk’s X, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, TikTok, Google and YouTube were called on to ‘urgently review’ material accessed by Rudakubana which is still available online.
Ms Cooper and Mr Kyle said the graphic video of the Sydney stabbing was removed in but was still available to view in the UK.
Police have warned it could take years to uncover what was in Rudakubana’s internet browsing history, which he deleted before he left the house to carry out the atrocity.
To obtain the information, detectives needed to go through US companies Microsoft, which owns the search engine Bing, and Google, which owns the web browser Chrome.
A Microsoft spokesperson said: ‘This is a tragic case and our sympathies are with the victims, their families and all those affected.
‘In a threat to life scenario, when we receive a request from law enforcement through our direct channels, we respond within 20 minutes and work together to share relevant information as quickly as possible.’
According to Google, the police could have applied through the UK courts for an overseas production order which, if granted, would have meant the data was produced more quickly.
A spokesman previously said the company was in touch with Merseyside Police to support their inquiries and that its ‘deepest sympathies are with all of the families and individuals affected by this horrific attack’.