Web giants will have to delete extremist content on their platforms within an hour or face being fined, under new plans by the European Commission.
It is the first time the commission has shown it will get tough on the likes of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – rather than relying on self-regulation alone.
Under the new rules, the sites would have an hour to take down things such as videos uploaded by members of Islamic State or posts inciting violence by extremist groups.
If they are not removed within the time period, companies will be fined.
The proposals will be set out in draft regulation due to be published next month, according to The Financial Times.
Julian King, the EU’s commissioner for security, told the newspaper that Brussels had ‘not seen enough progress’, when it came to the sites clamping down on terror-related material.
He vowed to ‘take stronger action in order to better protect our citizens’.
Under the rules, which would have to be agreed by a majority of EU member states, the platforms would have an hour to remove the material, a senior official told the newspaper.
The rules would apply to all websites, regardless of their size.
Mr King told the FT: ‘The difference in size and resources means platforms have differing capabilities to act against terrorist content and their policies for doing so are not always transparent.
‘All this leads to such content continuing to proliferate across the internet, reappearing once deleted and spreading from platform to platform.’
The proposals come as tech giants have said they are successfully fighting extremist materials on their platforms.
Earlier this year, Facebook said it had ‘made significant strides’ in finding and removing terror propaganda.
In the first quarter of 2018, the site took action against 1.9million pieces of ISIS and al-Qaeda content, about twice as much from the previous quarter.
Google, meanwhile, said more than 90 per cent of the terrorist material removed from YouTube was flagged automatically.
Half of those videos had had fewer than 10 views.
British politicians have said they will introduce laws to regulate tech giants, with a white paper currently being prepared.
It is unclear what the legislation might entail but former Culture Secretary Matt Hancock suggested measures such as social media sites being forced to introduce tough age verification checks.
In Germany, social media companies must remove ‘obviously illegal’ posts within 24 hours or face fines of more than £44million.