London Bridge attacks: Theresa May wants to 'deprive the extremists of their safe spaces online'

Britain's prime minster Theresa May called for regulating the internet in the wake of the London Bridge attack, which took the lives of seven people on Saturday. May called for new cyberspace rules that would "deprive the extremists of their safe spaces online."

"We need to do everything we can at home to reduce the risks of extremism online," Britain's prime minister said in a statement. "As the nature of the threat we face becomes more complex, more fragmented, more hidden, especially online, the strategy needs to keep up."

May accused tech giants that provide internet services as having allowed online extremism to spread and provided extremism "the safe space it needs to breed".

"We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning. And we need to do everything we can at home to reduce the risks of extremism online," May said.

Britain too tolerant of extremism

May said that Britain had "far too much tolerance of extremism" and that this attitude needed to be "stamped out" across society.

May also said that Britain's counter-terrorism strategy must be reviewed and upgraded. "As the nature of the threat we face becomes more complex, more fragmented, more hidden, especially online, the strategy needs to keep up," she said.

"The whole of our country needs to come together to take on this extremism, and we need to live our lives not in a series of separated, segregated communities, but as one truly United Kingdom," she said.

May has been instrumental in the introduction of the Investigatory Powers Bill, also known as the Snoopers Charter and has been a long-standing vocal opponent of encryption. The UK government's plan to ban end-to-end encryption recently fell through. However, those plans may now once again be considered as May's battle against terrorism brings technology to the forefront, in the wake of the third terror attack Britain has suffered in 2017.