Facebook, Google Face Legal Pressure to Curtail Extremism

European leaders struck by a wave of terror attacks are putting added pressure on technology companies including Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to weed out extremist content spread with social media, and to make their data available to law enforcement authorities.

Technology companies were instructed to develop methods that automatically detect and remove content that may incite violence. “Industry has its own responsibility to help combat terrorism and crime online,” the bloc’s 28 governments said in a statement during a summit in Brussels on Thursday. “This should be complemented by the relevant legislative measures at EU level, if necessary.”