Twitter has been reluctant to block all but the most violent posts by supporters of groups such as Isil, unless they clearly break the law or incite violence
Social media websites such as YouTube and Twitter have become a powerful tool for jihadist groups to recruit new members and spread their message, with internet firms often reluctant to remove anything but the most extreme postings.
The most notorious recent examples are the Isil videos of the beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid worker David Haines.
The jihadists became involved with in a game of online cat-and-mouse as YouTube and Twitter, as well as smaller sites, scrambled to take down postings of the gruesome video, as well as supportive postings from Isil's online members and backers.
But posters would often re-appear under slightly different names a few days later, deploying hash-tags - or hi-jacking other, unrelated ones - to get their posting trending again.
Because Twitter see themselves as a platform, rather than a publisher, they will only block users demonstrably involved in illegal activity or who make "direct, specific, threats of violence against others".
nlike Facebook, Twitter also decline to monitor postings systematically, relying on other users or government officials to report breaches of its terms of use. All this leaves a lot of wiggle-room for Isil members to post without being blocked.
This is where Theresa May's proposed proposed new orders come in - effectively giving the authorities the right to censor postings by those extremists who are subject to them.
The new orders could prevent British-based Twitter users from tweeting their support for groups such as Isil.
British supporters of the group, including are now fighting in Iraq and Syria, have used Twitter to appeal for new members and to threaten the British state.
In July, a Twitter user believed to be Nasser Muthana, 20, from Cardiff now thought to be in Syria, posted a picture of a stack improvised explosive devices in a garage. He tweeted: "So the UK is afraid I come back with the skills I've gained."
Muthana, a former medical student, had earlier appeared in an Isil recruitment video which was widely circulated on the internet.
Privately-educated Aqsa Mahmood, 20, from Glasgow, has also travelled to the Middle East and has allegedly encouraged terrorist acts via a Twitter account under the name Umm Layth.
Both accounts have since been deleted.
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