Most of you know about the terror attack in London last week. A man plows his car into a group of people on Westminster Bridge. Then, he stabbed people when he got out of the car. Four people died. Also, the attack injured dozens more. Police had to shoot and kill the suspect. But now, authorities say he used Whats App right before he killed. And lawmakers are not happy. What’s App used in London Terrorist attacks.
They’re not happy because Whats App uses end-to-end encryption. This prevents law agencies from reading messages without the user’s approval or knowledge. British Home Secretary Amber Rudd condemned What’s App. She said this kind of encryption is ‘completely unacceptable’. Secretary Rudd also hinted these apps could be a hiding place for terrorists. Furthermore, Rudd called on tech companies to prevent and fight social media publicity that inspires extremism. She says this because some believe the suspect eventually became radical. Other terrorist may have inspired him. But this isn’t the first beef between law enforcement and IT service companies. Remember the fight between Apple and the FBI? Apple didn’t help the FBI unlock a terrorist suspect’s phone. The fighting between them continues to this day.
Okay some terrorist used Whats App. But think of the billions who use Whats App for more positive things. They use it to plan work and meetings. Some also use it to tell family members, “I love you”. While others use Whats App to plan community events, charities, and youth activities to keep them off the streets. But I guess we should scrutinize that too, huh? It almost seems that some British lawmakers are using this tragedy as an excuse. They use this as an excuse to trample on all our privacy rights. And if we allowed governments to do this, then wouldn’t the terrorists win?
p.s. Please remind me to move George Orwell’s 1984 to the non-fiction part of my bookshelf.