The terrorist manuals showing jihadists how to make bombs similar to the one used in the botched New York subway suicide attack on December 11 are still available online amid warnings of further attacks.
The Independent had alerted Google about their algorithms that could lead extremists to the material.
However, the material was still available through search results more than 48 hours after the tech giant was alerted.
Bangladeshi migrant Akayed Ullah reportedly detonated a homemade bomb strapped to his body at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on December 11, injuring himself and three others.
According to a document submitted to court, the 27-year-old used the instructions he had found online to make the pipe bomb.
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Court papers filed by federal prosecutors said Akayed also told investigators that he had been motivated by American airstrikes on Islamic State targets.
He was charged at Manhattan federal court on December 11 with providing material in support to a foreign terrorist organization, bombing a public place, destruction of property by means of explosive and use of a destructive device.
Readily available household items like batteries and screws were used to make the bomb at Akayed’s Brooklyn flat a week before the explosion.
The report said the components are hallmarks of bomb-making instructions issued by al-Qaeda and were linked to previous atrocities, including the Boston bombings and Parsons Green attacks.
Full text of the guide can be found via a defunct news website by conducting a simple Google search. However, The Independent did not disclose the name of the guide.
The instructions published inside an English-language propaganda magazine in 2010, helped create a bomb identical to the one used by Akayed.
It might be noted that the document is just one of numerous explosives manuals that can be found easily via Google. On the other hand, Amazon was recently found to be “suggesting” bomb components to shoppers.
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Besides, another al-Qaeda handbook that contains more detailed manuals on a range of explosives is easily available online and can be accessed through an international news website.
Moreover, a PDF document that teaches jihadists how to manufacture poisons and chemical agents, appears as the first Google result when its name is searched.
Islamic State has also issued its own guidance on making explosives but its English-language propaganda has largely focused on inciting attacks using knives and vehicles.
Investigators said Akayed’s radicalization began in 2014 when Islamic State declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria. He reportedly viewed propaganda online. He also viewed a video that instructed people unable to travel to Islamic State territories to carry out attacks at home.
Nikita Malik, a senior research fellow at think tank the Henry Jackson Society, said a lot of YouTube videos also show how to make rudimentary explosives.
Also Read- ‘Akayed Ullah a homegrown US terrorist’
She told The Independent that it was appalling that people could access bomb-making guides, chemical handbooks and beheading photos on Google.
Talking about the bomb-making guides, the guidelines were not being removed because there was no clear legislation on who is responsible for disseminating terrorist material.
Such acts are considered a criminal offence in the UK but so far only individuals have been prosecuted and no internet companies or publishers were tried for such matters.
Malik also called on Google to eliminate dangerous pages from its search results or make them harder to find.
Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit of the UK removed hundreds of thousands of videos, images and posts, but relies on the cooperation of internet service providers to help with take-down notices.
The Independent in a test found that a generic search relating to explosives did not immediately bring up a guide but resulted in a related search that lead to a specific terrorist group's manual which still remains online.
Meanwhile, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism has also been working to detect and remove extremist material hosted by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube but taking down material posted elsewhere is difficult.
Also Read- Akayed started changing after his father’s death in US
Websites hosted in foreign countries may fall outside national law; terrorist organizations like Islamic State that swiftly re-upload removed websites under new addresses.
Moreover, terrorists have also been using encrypted email and messaging services like Telegram to avoid being tracked by intelligence agencies while distributing such materials.
In a conference last month, head of UK’s national counter-terror policing Mark Rowley said online radicalization and planning was one of the most acute challenges they were facing.
He said half of the materials were run by mainstream news organizations or academic institutions.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said anyone could go on the internet and download materials that show the techniques to build an amateur level explosive device.
When contacted, a Google spokesperson said they promptly remove any terrorist content that is reported to them in compliance with UK law.
However, they are cautious when the webpages in question are produced by journalists, academics, and anti-terrorist advocates which lawfully report on or catalogue acts of terrorism.