WhatsApp To Help Authorities?

Amber Rudd, Britain’s new home secretary, wants police and intelligence agencies to be given access to WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging servic

16:26 28 March 2017

Amber Rudd, Britain’s new home secretary, wants police and intelligence agencies to be given access to WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging services in a bid to prevent future terror attacks.

 

She said: “It is completely unacceptable. There should be no place for terrorists to hide.

 

“We need to make sure that organisations like WhatsApp, and there are plenty of others like that, don’t provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other.”

 

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Rudd said she is not ruling out the passing of new legislation to tackle encrypted messaging. She has also summoned leaders of technology companies to a meeting on Thursday 30 March to discuss what to do.

 

“These people have families, have children as well,” she said. “They should be on our side, and I’m going to try to win that argument.”

 

Her demand was quickly described as unrealistic and disproportionate by opposition politicians and civil liberties group.

 

Rudd’s call came following reports that Khalid Masood, the British extremist who killed four people outside parliament, had used WhatsApp before he launched his attack on Wednesday. Masood has been on the radar of the intelligence community for potential links to extremism in 2010 following his return from Saudi Arabia.