Lee Rigby Murder: Facebook on Defensive After Hosting Graphic Michael Adebowale Jihad Discussion

Facebook has defended its credentials on not allowing potential terrorists to post material on its pages after it was named as the website that hosted the discussions of Lee Rigby killer Michael Adebowale about killing a soldier.

Reports claimed Adebowale used the social networking site to plan in "the most graphic and emotive manner" the death of a soldier with a known terrorist.

The accusation came after the Intelligence and Security Committee concluded in its 192-page report into the death of Rigby that an internet firm could have done more to avert his murder if it had handed MI5 the messages.

"The brutal murder of Lee Rigby could have been prevented if an internet company had passed on an online exchange in which one of the killers expressed 'in the most graphic terms' his intention to carry out an Islamist jihad attack," the report said.

But in a statement, Facebook said: "Like everyone else, we were horrified by the vicious murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby.

"We don't comment on individual cases but Facebook's policies are clear: we do not allow terrorist content on the site and take steps to prevent people from using our service for these purposes."

Its response came after David Cameron called for internet websites to do "all they could" as it was their "social responsibility" to act on terrorists' communications.