BRITAIN and France are to work together in a joint campaign aimed at preventing terrorists using the internet as a “safe space”, but it immediately came under fire from freedom campaigners.
Until now the two have made separate efforts to limit the online presence of extremists, but now they believe more can be accomplished by working together.
The countries have pledged to pressure tech firms — such as Google and Facebook — into doing more to combat online extremism and are considering the possibility of fines and other legal penalties if they do not remove offending content.
The joint national security approach follows terror attacks on both countries, and builds on agreements made by world leaders at G7 talks in Sicily last month.
Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed four priorities at a meeting in Paris: improving methods to remove illegal content from the internet; supporting civil society organisations’ efforts to promote alternative and counter narratives; working together to ensure data can be accessed for investigative purposes; and improving access to digital evidence across borders.
May told a joint press conference with Macron: “Our discussions have focused on the greatest security challenge our two countries face — tackling terrorism and rooting out the extremism that fuels it.”
She added: “We are already working with social media companies to halt the spread of extremist material and poisonous propaganda that is warping young minds, but we know they need to do more.”
Macron acknowledged the difficulty of balancing security measures with preservation of users’ privacy and free speech. The pair stressed that coordination with various European partners would be sought on the issues and said they would seek an early meeting of the G7 interior ministers.
However, Big Brother Watch said it was likely to make us less safe. In a blog post, the group said the third point agreed between the two countries caused it most concern, and appeared “to be the intention to encourage other countries to adopt their own take on the Investigatory Powers Act”.
That particular section seeks to preserve the retention and access to traffic and location data, enable subscription holders to be identified in all circumstances and allow access to encrypted content.
“The intention to retain and access traffic and location data which was passed in the IP Act last year is currently subject to ongoing legal challenge,” said the campaigners.
Of the plan to identify “subscription holders in all circumstances”, it said the plan stated that a single Internet Protocol (IP) address can be shared between hundreds of users accessing the internet through smartphones.
“That means if you happen to go online using the same IP address as someone who looks at terror content you too will be monitored,” said Big Brother Watch.
“This will be done in order to determine whose mobile phone, laptop, computer or tablet is the one looking at the inappropriate content.
“If it turns out that it wasn’t you, you will be removed from the investigation but thanks to the UK Government refusing to tell innocent people if they have been monitored, you won’t ever know your activity was being looked at and you certainly won’t be told that you for a period of time were a suspect of an investigation. Even if you are totally innocent.”
However, it was the intention to seek access to encrypted content that the group said could worsen our safety.
“We don’t want to interfere with what is clearly going to be a complex conversation between companies and governments around the world, but let’s be clear, creating any copy of a key, or permitting one time access to any system, programme or device will, whether we like it or not, create a vulnerability,” warned the group.
“It makes uncomfortable reading but we should not shy away from the fact that a vulnerability won’t exist solely for the good guys. If it slips through their fingers it could fall into the hands of the bad guys who might exploit it for their advantage and our disadvantage. This creates a serious risk to all our safety.
“Put simply, should France and Britain unite to make this ‘action plan’ a reality, they will be uniting to make us far less, not far more safe.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here