The European Union is poised to adopt sweeping new powers against abuse of internet technologies, including measures to ensure the rapid removal of online terrorist message and an overhaul of regulations designed to counter cyber security threats. The proposal by the European Commission, expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks, will require internet giants like Facebook and Google to remove terrorist content within one hour of publication. Failure to take rapid action after receiving a notification will result in penalties for the providers. David Ibsen, the executive director of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), said on Tuesday that it was vitally important that Brussels includes measures to prevent abuse of services provided by cloud computing providers such as Dropbox. “CEP research shows that terrorist content which has been identified on Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft One Drive, as well Amazon Cloud Drive is often removed in approximately one to two days, but is sometimes available for longer. In that amount of time, these often violent propaganda materials can be seen and shared hundreds, if not thousands of times.”