Facebook refuses to hand jihadi terror texts over to MI5

FACEBOOK yesterday defied Government demands to hand encrypted terror texts to MI5, despite the spate of horrific attacks in Britain.

Sheryl Sandberg, the social network’s chief operating officer, refused to back down in a meeting with Home Secretary Amber Rudd, despite evidence that jihadis are using its WhatsApp messaging service to plot their atrocities in secret.

Hours before the stand-off, Facebook had announced a new scheme to try to tackle extremism on its platforms.

It said it would give money to charities to help them ‘counter’ hate speech whenever they see it. But it still refused to show MI5 texts by known terrorists.

MPs said Facebook’s refusal to back down made a mockery of

‘World will be safer if they do that’

its efforts and branded its defiance as ‘very disappointing’.

Tory MP Nigel Huddleston said: ‘[Facebook staff] are clever people. I think that they can put the time, effort and money into coming up with a secure alternative... The world will be safer if they do that.’

The Home Office said in a statement: ‘Technology companies still need to go further and faster in moving towards preventing this type of toxic output being disseminated in the first place.’

WhatsApp’s ‘end to end’ encryption system ensures users can talk freely without anyone spying on their messages.

Messages are turned into indecipherable computer code which can only be unscrambled when they reach the intended recipient. It is even inaccessible to Facebook.

Miss Sandberg said yesterday that the meeting with Miss Rudd was ‘constructive’.