As British Prime Minister David Cameron begins his campaign for elections in May, the attacks by terrorists on Parisian satirical publication charlie hebdo provide the perfect example to call for higher control on today’s communication tools by the government. The aftermath of the Parisian attacks has drawn unrequited attention to messaging apps like WhatsApp and others.
His campaign for increased access to online activities of users, for government organizations, comes after most European countries too called for the higher transparency from internet companies. The European politicians are also crying for a ban on ‘encrypted online communication tools,’ that could be misused by terrorists, if they are not allowed deeper data access to user activities by companies such as Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB).
The new reforms via legislations direct telecom operators as well as internet service providers to ‘store more data’ on the online activities of their users. This would include social network messages as well.
However, legislation regarding storing of messages posted on networking sites are effective in 2016.
Therefore, it needs to be seen how the British government will be able to impose laws that infringe on privacy of its citizens. Besides WhatsApp, Snap Chat and similar Messaging Apps are used by billions of global users.
European Union too calls for blanketing inciting Messages
European Union politicians have released a joint statement berating frequent use of the Internet to ‘fuel hatred and violence.’ They expressed their determination that the abuse of the Internet towards this end is condemnable and will not be encouraged.
Earlier attempts of seeking higher control and access to user information by European-based bureaucrats with US-based higher-up’s at Twitter Inc and Microsoft appear to have fallen flat thus far. Besides, these companies are themselves fighting against their government’s unparalleled privacy invasion of its users and their online activities.
Despite the Messaging App Companies’ themselves resisting higher surveillance, they cannot deny that there is sufficient proof online to gain ‘intelligence’ on terrorists’ attacks. In Britain, the killing of a solider in 2013, in London can be traced to two men’s online threats via Facebook.
