Obama urges tech companies to help fight terror

President Obama said in a speech to the American people that he urgently “calls for leaders of the high-tech world to make it more difficult for terrorists to evade execution using technology.”

Obama said in a statement following the shooting in the Californian city of San Bernadino. This took place at a care institution for people with disabilities. There were fourteen casualties. The two perpetrators are said to be Muslim extremists, but not part of a larger conspiracy.

The US president sets out in his statement what is already being done by the US to fight terrorism and what is now being added to it. Obama mentions, among other things, air strikes and training and equipment for local allies in the fight against the terrorist group IS. What he wants to add this time is a rethinking of the Visa Waiver program that allowed one of the two perpetrators to easily enter the country. He also urges the tech world to help make it more difficult for terrorists to evade authorities using technology.

While President Obama doesn’t go into detail about exactly what he means by the “technology” terrorists use to keep their operations secret, he is most likely referring to encryption. With more and more digital communication services offering end-to-end encryption, it is becoming more difficult for authorities to track down and monitor terrorists on these communication channels. The trade-off between the value of privacy versus the value of security creates a major field of tension here. Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton has also made similar statements. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson did so in April. In any case, access to digital private communication would not be laid down in law for the time being.