Security services will struggle to investigate hundreds of British extremists who fought for ISIS after social media companies introduce stronger encryption services, the new head of MI5 has said.
Companies such as Facebook are providing end-to-end encryption potentially used by child abusers and criminals as well as terrorists, Ken McCallum said in his first interview as MI5's director general.
He said 80 per cent of terrorist plots are attributed to Islamist extremists with more people being indoctrinated online during the pandemic.
But it is the surveillance of radicals who returned from fighting for ISIS that present a major concern for Britain's domestic intelligence service.
"Over the past decade, in Syria there were more than 950 UK-based individuals who headed out there to join the Islamic State and other groups, with a huge set of consequences for the risk that we've been seeking to manage ever since," Mr McCallum told Times Radio.
He said events in the Middle East over the past few decades had “massively influenced” people living in Britain, potentially radicalising some, although MI5 had foiled at least 19 major terrorist attacks over the past four years.
But in an outspoken attack on Facebook and other social media, he said their proposals for stronger end-to-end encryption posed "a real risk for us and that there's a real conversation that has not yet reached a satisfactory place and that's a great concern to me”.
A window into terrorists' living rooms
The 46-year-old intelligence chief said MI5 didn't want to pry into normal citizens’ lives or for Britain to become a “surveillance state”, but he needed the ability to prevent atrocities.
“Our job is to deal with a one in a million case where the living room is a terrorist living room and they may be building a bomb or filming a martyrdom video before some airline-devastating plot that they might be planning.”
He said the encryption was giving “terrorists or people who are organising child sexual abuse online, some of the worst people in our society – a free pass where they know that nobody can see into what they are doing in those private living rooms.”
He called on social media bosses to allow the security services access to the terrorist and criminal conversations, “but just in those exceptional cases when the risks to the public are acute”.
Mark Zuckerberg’s privacy plans for Messenger and Instagram meant that terrorists could send illegal material and plot attacks without being visible to law enforcement, Mr McCallum said.
“Decisions taken in California boardrooms are every bit as relevant to our ability to do our jobs as decisions taken in Afghanistan or Syria.”
Extremists had been prevented from conducting attacks during lockdown, which had had a “suppressive effect on some terrorist networks” and had curtailed overseas travel, but more people had been indoctrinated online while “stewing on their sofas”.
In its defence, Facebook said that strong encryption was essential to keep everyone safe from hackers and criminals.
“We have no tolerance for terrorism or child exploitation on our platforms and are building strong safety measures into our plans, including using information like behavioural patterns and user reports to combat such abuse,” a Facebook spokesman said.
“We will continue to work with industry experts, law enforcement and security agencies to combat criminal activity and to keep people safe across all our platforms.”
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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Greatest Royal Rumble results
John Cena pinned Triple H in a singles match
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Jeff Hardy retained the United States title against Jinder Mahal
Bludgeon Brothers retain the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Usos
Seth Rollins retains the Intercontinental title against The Miz, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe
AJ Styles remains WWE World Heavyweight champion after he and Shinsuke Nakamura are both counted out
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Braun Strowman won the 50-man Royal Rumble by eliminating Big Cass last
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England Test squad
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Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.