WhatsApp snub Government plea to access encrypted messages to help them stop terrorists striking in the UK
MESSAGING service WhatsApp has REJECTED Government pleas for it to allow security services to access their encrypted messages.
that ministers had asked it to come up with a way for them to look at them to help fight terrorism, but they had turned it down.
Sources said that terrorists were "frequent users of encrypted apps" like WhatsApp and Telegram - which is popular for jihadists to share their content on.
And without the access to information being sent, it was creating a "black hole" for security services.
"It is crucially important that we can access their communications," the source added.
Encryption means that the messages are scrambled when they leave one phone - and can only be unscrambled using a code on the other phone.
Sick Westminster attacker Khalid Massood who killed PC Keith Palmer - had used WhatsApp to communicate - but we don't know what was said.
The company does provides some information to police about WhatsApp users, but they can't provide information on the content of the message without breaking their encryption model, the company argues.
And they say that creating a back door would weaken their services, which would leave it vulnerable to hackers.
Ministers are continuing to push the company, however, and want to allow it access to cops under a proper warrant.
A spokesman for WhatsApp said it has no ability to see the content of messages or listen to calls on its system as the encryption and decryption of messages occurs on individual devices.
He said: "WhatsApp appreciates the work that law enforcement agencies do to keep people safe around the world.
"We carefully review, validate, and respond to law enforcement requests based on applicable law and policy, and we prioritise responses to emergency requests.
"As part of our education efforts, we published information for law enforcement about the limited information we collect and how they can make requests of WhatsApp."
Sky News claimed that a whopping 80% of investigations into terrorism and serious crime are now impacted by encrypted messages because terrorists are far more "tech savvy" than they were before.
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The news comes as Twitter revealed that it has has suspended almost one MILLION accounts for promoting terrorist material in just two years.
Social networks have come under furious fire for not doing enough to combat extremism online, after five terror attacks hit the UK in 2017 alone.
Westminster, London Bridge, Manchester, Finsbury Park and most recently Parsons Green have seen members of the public attacked, injured and killed by extremists.
But the website cut off 995,897 individual accounts for breaking their terms and conditions by sharing terrorist content in the two years up to June, it said today.
And in the first half of this year alone, almost 300,000 were paused too.
That was actually a 20 per cent DROP from the same period six months previously.
Almost 95 per cent of those were caught by the company's spam-fighting tools - and three in four before they even sent their first tweet.
The news comes as The Sun revealed today that Facebook had banned an RAF charity's disability campaign while allowing Isis beheading videos to stay online.
The web giant said an inspirational ad campaign by Flying Scholarships for Disabled People breached its diversity guidelines.
The new figures from Twitter also showed that the UK government had made a total of 606 requests for information from the company in the last six months.
Twitter complied and gave away some information in 79 per cent of cases - about more than 800 different accounts.
The United States remains the top requester submitting 33% of total government information requests, Twitter said.
But the firm is still being urged to do more to stop extremism and fight abuse.
Today it was suggested that trolls who abuse MPs online could be banned from voting altogether - as part of plans from the election watchdog.
Amnesty International slammed the web giant after it discovered thousands of threatening tweets aimed at high profile politicians which were allowed to stay online.
MPs have demanded that abusive messages get taken down within 24 hours of them being reported to the site, as they slammed them for "failing" users.
Ed Sheeran has been forced to quit the platform too after he admitted that the vile comments made brought him down.
Theresa May is set to urge social media companies to buck up when she has meetings with them in New York tomorrow.