Rifkind declares in his report the lack of transparency from social networks on potential terrorist threats leads to terrorist’s using the networks to communicate. In 2012, Michael Adebolajo, one of the attackers, spoke to an ally overseas, claiming he will kill a British soldier to get revenge on the dead innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In regards to how Rifkind got this type of information, the document extrudes to social networks helping already, but in the report there are mild cases for concern, including the fact GCHQ may have already stored this information.
Edward Snowden’s leaked documents on the GCHQ paint a rather terrible portrait of the state of UK surveillance, where almost all information on the Internet is stored. British intelligence agencies have bragged behind closed doors about having too much information, and not being able to monitor it all.
If this is the case for GCHQ — the intelligence group relying on backdoor information to stop terror threats — then how would Facebook or any other social network be capable of finding terrorist messages.
The fact is, even with the mass surveillance happening in the U.S. and UK, the intelligence agencies behind the surveillance cannot put this information to good use, when stopping terrorists or attacks.
If this is what anti-terrorism looks like, it does a rather poor job selling the idea government knows how to control the Internet. The amount of information, reportedly 50 billion entries per day, is simply too much to investigate and find evidence.
Smaller surveillance groups in the Middle East use a much more accessible and concerning surveillance, allowing countries to prosecute people based on information they found through surveillance.
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