Cooper steps up pressure on Google over extremist videos

Ms Cooper, who chairs the Home Affairs Select Committee, expressed frustration that propaganda from the National Action group continues to appear online.

National Action was proscribed by the Home Office as a far-Right terrrorist organisation in December but Ms Cooper showed its videos were still available during a select committee hearing.

Speaking to Solicitor-General Robert Buckland she said: “Can I ask you to look at whether Google’s continued inability to remove this material despite it having been raised with them repeatedly is in any way against the criminal law?”

Ms Cooper said National Action material was removed when it was brought to Google’s attention but suggested it should go further.

Addressing Mr Buckland and Home Office Minister Sarah Newton, Ms Cooper said: “Are you expecting that the Home Office or the police is going to have to do these continuous searches or the select committee is going to have to do these searches or do you think its about time, frankly, that Google did their own search using their own fantastic search engines to find this stuff and stop it being available for people to see?”

Mr Buckland said proscribing an organisation was a “very serious step to take” and that “consequences follow”.

He added: “It is based on very clear evidence about activity that is clearly contrary to the criminal law and that’s why this Government acted in the way it did.

“We expect those consequences to follow and we expected to be supported by organisations like Google and other social media networks.”

Mr Buckland said there was already a criminal offence of “recklessly disseminating” terrorist material.

Earlier this week Google apologised to customers whose adverts appeared next to extremist material.

The company said it was looking at ways of going further and faster in efforts to remove extremist material.

A number of major advertisers have threatened to withdraw their business.