Met police chief believes tech firms are failing to prevent terrorism
Dame Cressida Dick recently wrote an article for The Telegraph regarding the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the article she also highlighted how terrorism has evolved and especially how it is targeting the UK.
Dame Cressida also acknowledged in the article that tech firms were making it harder for the police to identify terrorist activity on social media platforms.
She said: "The current focus on encryption by many big tech companies is only serving to make our job to identify and stop these people even harder, if not impossible in some cases".
Dame Cressida also shared similar thoughts at the 20th Annual World Summit on Counter Terrorism. In her speech, she addressed that although tech firms are working better alongside the government, they are still not doing enough to protect vulnerable people from being exposed to terrorism. She said:
"But there is still more they can and must do. They have the power and resources to make real difference. But they are not doing enough to protect people against the harm that takes place on their platforms” - Dame Cressida Dick
Dame Cressida also discussed how end to end encryption was becoming a dangerous tool. She said:
“This is just one example of how this wonderful capability that we all have now to communicate in different ways is also not only damaging to society but preventing law enforcement agencies the world over from protecting their citizens".
“How are we supposed to protect children from online sexual exploitation? Or defend ourselves against the next terrorist threat if we don’t even have the power to have evidence held on servers outside our jurisdiction?”
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