‘Fifth column’ tech f irms must defend society they profit from, warns Fallon
SIR Michael Fallon accused internet giants of acting like the ‘enemy within’ yesterday as he threatened new laws to force them to hand over jihadists’ messages.
The Defence Secretary said a modern democracy could not tolerate ‘fifth column activity’ by encrypted messaging services such as WhatsApp.
He added that they were giving terrorists the space to operate in secret ‘WhatsApp clusters’ on their smartphones.
At a security conference in Westminster – near the scene of the terror attack which left four dead and 50 injured last Wednesday – he said they ‘must not duck out of their responsibility to help keep us safe’.
But the president of Microsoft vowed not to help the Government hack its customers unless it was legally compelled to. ‘We will not help any government, including our own, hack or attack any customer anywhere,’ Brad Smith told ITV News.
Encrypted messaging services came under fire at the weekend when it emerged the police and security services had been unable to access messages sent on WhatsApp by Khalid Masood, 52, just two minutes before his rampage.
It is understood Facebook-owned WhatsApp, and other encrypted apps such as Telegram, have repeatedly refused to allow security services access to their content. They use end-to-end encryption, which means the content can be deciphered only by the sender and recipient.
Websites such as Google have also been in the spotlight since Wednesday’s attack for failing to remove beheading videos and terrorist manuals.
Sir Michael’s tirade against the firms came as Amber Rudd used a summit in Brussels to rally EU nations to unite in forcing web giants to tackle terrorism.
The Home Secretary told EU counterparts there could be no ‘safe spaces’ for jihadists to plot atrocities.
Sir Michael warned firms could be forced to act. He added: ‘In my view a mature democracy cannot tolerate this fifth column activity by technology providers.’
He said they were ‘earning huge revenues but not willing to play their part defending the open society from which they make their money’.
‘If they are not making it possible for us to open up these closed networks then the legislation we have got is being frustrated,’ he said. ‘We are looking urgently at what we can now do to force these providers to open up these closed networks where we have due cause to look at them.’
This could include fines for not removing content swiftly, or software changes enabling firms to decrypt messages when required by law enforcement.
There is a clause in the Investigatory Powers Act, passed in November, which could allow this.
Sir Michael said the firms ‘should be part of keeping our freedom secure and making sure authorities can access some of the vital information they need’.
The abilities of security agencies ‘have not kept pace with the advent of new technology’, he said, adding: ‘WhatsApp providers and some of these others need to recognise they cannot duck out of their responsibility to help keep us safe.
‘They are the ones providing this new means for terrorists to talk to each other and they owe the rest of us the right to make sure communication between terrorists can be accessed by those who keep us safe.’
Miss Rudd said companies had to do more to remove extremist content and crack down on ‘irresponsible’ encryption.
At a meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, she stressed that forcing the likes of Google, YouTube and Facebook to remove jihadist content could not be achieved by one country alone.
The Home Secretary demanded that firms create contingencies that allow the security services to access messages if they have a judge-approved warrant.
Sources said France and Estonia were among those to speak in support of Miss Rudd. As she gained European allies on the issue, Donald Trump was last night under pressure to force WhatsApp to hand over evidence on the Westminster attack.
Britain has no legal power to force the firm to help investigators because it is based in the US. But the President could threaten it with legal action, as the FBI did in a similar fight with Apple last year.
Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski, a member of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said: ‘Americans must put pressure on WhatsApp to comply otherwise we are entering uncharted waters.’
Meanwhile, it emerged Miss Rudd herself uses WhatsApp. She was active on the service as recently as 8.57am yesterday, according to Buzzfeed News.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘The Government supports encryption in cyber security. But it is irresponsible to give terrorists a way to plot online which cannot be intercepted by the police and intelligence agencies.’
Terrorists’ friend (cont). WhatsApp won’t reveal killer’s final message Yesterday’s Daily Mail ‘Cannot duck out of their responsibility’