Mayor of London launches app to help public report terrorist content

March 3, 2021

FEATURED

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has recently launched a City Hall-funded smartphone app designed to make it easier for members of the public to report online terrorist content.

iREPORTit has been created in partnership with the national Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit and will enable people across the UK to anonymously report terrorist content to the police by simply using their smartphones. The launch of the app follows City Hall research undertaken amidst the COVID-19 pandemic which revealed that four out of five Londoners were unsure how to report extremist material online.

Following City Hall’s delivery of the CVE Mayor’s Civic Innovation Challenge – which asked London’s technology sector to create an innovative solution to help members of the public report online terrorist content – Raven Science was named as the challenge’s winners and they were awarded £40,000 to create the iREPORTit app.

It has been officially confirmed by Counter Terrorism Policing that the app will initially run as a three-month pilot and is a part of the Mayor’s Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programme.

Mr Khan stated: “We know terrorists and extremists are set on exploiting the uncertainty of the pandemic for their own gain. With more people than ever at home online for longer periods, often in isolated environments, I’m determined to do everything I can to counter that threat.

“Working closely with the national Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit, I have funded the iREPORTit app to bridge the gap between someone seeing extremism online and being able to report it quickly and anonymously from their mobile phone.

“We know terrorism does not recognise borders so this app will be available to all Londoners and everyone across the UK. However, we urgently need the Government and tech firms to step up and do more now to prevent the rapid spread of terrorist and extremism material online. Insidious voices are growing louder online and we must all work together to counter hate, intolerance, extremism and terrorism.”

If you have seen material online which you are concerned could be terrorist or extremist, you can report it at: www.gov.uk/act

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