US tech firms ‘in denial’ about exploitation by terrorists

The head of surveillance agency GCHQ says that the largest US tech firms have become the 'command-and-control networks' of terrorists.

LONDON // Internet giants such as Facebook and Twitter are “in denial” about their role in spreading terrorism, said the head of the UK’s eavesdropping agency on his first day in office.

Robert Hannigan, head of surveillance agency GCHQ, called on US technology companies to support the fight against terrorism, saying that the largest firms have become the “command-and-control networks” of terrorists.

Mr Hannigan’s warning is the latest from European officials concerned about the internet’s role in luring an estimated 3,000 young Europeans to join Islamist militants in Syria and Iraq.

European Union interior ministers met informally with Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft in Luxembourg on October 8 to discuss ways to combat ISIL’s use of websites for glossy recruitment publications and for posting videos of executions.

"To those of us who have to tackle the depressing end of human behavior on the internet, it can seem that some technology companies are in denial about its misuse," Mr Hannigan said in an editoral in the Financial Times.

“GCHQ and its sister agencies, MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service, cannot tackle these challenges at scale without greater support from the private sector, including the largest US technology companies which dominate the web.”

ISIL is the first terrorist group whose “members have grown up on the internet”, he said.

The group posts videos of its leader’s sermons and the beheadings of hostages, and have hijacked popular Twitter hashtags such as WorldCup to ensure a wider audience.

Mr Hannigan said technology allows militants to encrypt messages, as techniques that “were once the preserve of the most sophisticated criminals or nation states now come as standard”.

GCHQ should “enter the public debate” about how data is used, Mr Hannigan said. Still, “privacy has never been an absolute right and the debate about this should not become a reason for postponing urgent and difficult decisions,” he wrote.

Twitter, Facebook and Youtube declined to comment on the article.

The EU has said about 3,000 Europeans have joined Islamic militants in Syria.

In July, the UK government pushed emergency legislation through parliament to ensure communications companies kept records of e-mails, texts and phone calls for a year to help law-enforcement agencies track and catch terrorists and other criminals.

*Bloomberg