Brussels gave internet firms three months in March to show they were acting faster to take down radical posts, but EU regulators say the US based firms are dragging their feet.

If authorities flag it, the European Commission wants content inciting or advocating extremist offences, promoting extremist groups, or showing how to commit such acts to be removed from the web within a hour.

Jean-Claude Juncker said in his annual State of the Union address to the European Parliament that the first hour is the decisive time window when the greatest damage takes place.  After all it gives it a chance to be shared by more people and makes killing it off difficult.

Service providers will have to provide annual transparency reports to show their efforts in tackling abuse.

Providers systematically failing to remove extremist content could face hefty fines of up to  four percent of annual global turnover. Content providers will however have the right to challenge removal orders.

“We need strong and targeted tools to win this online battle”, Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said of the new rules.

In turn, the draft rules will demand the EU’s 28 national governments put in place the capacity to identify extremist content online, sanctions and an appeals procedure.