Murdered Lee Rigby: Facebook ‘has his blood on its hands’

Fusilier Lee Rigby, murdered in the street.

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The family of Lee Rigby holds social network company Facebook partly responsible for his murder.

A report found Facebook failed to take action over an online chat in which one of the killers vowed to slay a soldier.

The Intelligence and Security Committee's long-awaited report yesterday labelled an unnamed internet company - widely reported to be Facebook - a "safe haven for terrorists" because it didn’t flag the online exchange between Michael Adebowale and a foreign jihadist five months before Fusilier Rigby's murder.

The parliamentary watchdog's chair Sir Malcolm Rifkind said Facebook could have pegged the conversation and said there was "a significant possibility MI5 would have been able to prevent the attack" as Adebowale would have become "a top priority".

Fusilier Rigby's sister Sara told the Sun newspaper: "Facebook have my brother's blood on their hands. I hold them partly responsible for Lee's murder."

Fusilier Rigby's stepfather Ian said: "Facebook failed us all when they failed to alert our authorities."

A Facebook spokesman 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 and take steps to prevent people from using our service for these purposes."

Fusilier Rigby's family later told Good Morning Britain the report had left them with "a lot of questions".

Mr Rigby claimed internet companies have a duty of care towards customers and should pass information on when necessary.

A number of online accounts owned by Adebowale were automatically disabled due to association with terrorists and terrorism — but the unnamed web firm was unaware as it does not manually review such decisions, and didn’t notify law enforcement agencies.

The MPs’ report said it was "highly unlikely" that without the company’s help the intelligence agencies would have seen the online discussion, which came to light only after the barbaric murder near Woolwich barracks on May 22 last year.

The committee also concluded that the three intelligence agencies — MI5, MI6 and GCHQ — could not have prevented the murder of Fusilier Rigby, whose father Phil McClure, lives in Bardsley — despite a litany of errors and missed opportunities in seven previous operations featuring Adebowale and Adebolajo.