Anti-terrorism police target 'extremist' internet files

The evidence the police had found was kept on a computer hard drive in a wardrobe in his bedroom, including within it a video on how to make a bomb vest.

Speaking to the BBC in 2010, however, Mr Ditta claimed that he thought they were videos that many other people may have also viewed, without being arrested or sent to jail.

"The file content, a lot of it was American or British tanks being blown up in Afghanistan or Iraq and that kind of thing, and I've seen other people with this type of content on their PCs.

Rizwan believes the climate was different then and that the level of scrutiny was more intense than it is now, and that the police were arresting and charging people who would not face any similar prosecution today.

"I felt I did absolutely nothing wrong to deserve four years in jail."

Grey area

Two years ago the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) set up a nationwide trial project, the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIU), which was tasked with shutting down or removing extremist content from the web.

The unit, run by the Metropolitan Police, has received over 2000 referrals since it officially began its work eighteen months ago.

The CTIU is headed by Superintendent Jayne Snelgrove.

"We are looking to take down material that is likely to radicalise or be used by a terrorist."

Supt Snelgrove says that if a domain is hosted in the UK they can act quickly with service providers to take it down or remove the offending content.

"We are looking at (UK) anti-terror legislation where sites may be either encouraging people to participate in acts of terrorism or help facilitate acts of terrorism."

Supt Snelgrove says it is a subjective assessment, but there are some basic guidelines to consider.There is a grey area for users of the internet as to when someone is classed as having simply looked at a site or when they are actually breaking the law.

BBC