Cook, tech execs to meet with White House on terrorists' use of social media
Apple CEO Tim Cook and a host of tech industry executives will meet with White House officials on Friday to explore ways in which terrorist activity on social media and other online arenas can be hindered or countered.
According to BuzzFeed News, Cook will join representatives from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and other influential Silicon Valley players as part of a summit in San Jose, Calif., to discuss how each company might best leverage their respective online platforms to combat terrorists' use of social media as a recruitment tool. News of the upcoming summit was first reported by Reuters.
"The White House sees Silicon Valley as an integral part of fighting the propaganda from ISIL and other groups," an unnamed White House official told BuzzFeed News. "There needs to be a concerted effort to fight the ISIL propaganda."
While the list of tech executives attending tomorrow's meeting has not been revealed, sources informed Reuters that White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, National Intelligence Director James Clapper and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers will be present.
The session comes after deadly attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., sparked debate on the role social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, as well as encrypted messaging services similar to those offered by Apple and Google, play in terrorist recruitment, organization, planning and propaganda operations. Specifically, some have assigned partial blame on the tech industry for allowing contentious content to propagate online.
The democratization of high-tech communications hardware and services is a double-edged sword in that allowing consumer access to such assets inherently grants nefarious agents the same freedoms. For its part, companies like Twitter and Facebook enforce strict codes of conduct prohibiting terrorist activity.
Speaking on the topic of consumer protection against government surveillance, Cook has come down hard on agencies calling for softer encryption methods. According to Cook, removing Apple's existing strong encryption safeguards would not be of any benefit, and could do more harm than good.
"Terrorists will encrypt. They know what to do," Cook said in a February interview. "If we don't encrypt, the people we affect [by cracking down on privacy] are the good people. They are the 99.999 percent of people who are good." He added, "You don't want to eliminate everyone's privacy. If you do, you not only don't solve the terrorist issue but you also take away something that is a human right. The consequences of doing that are very significant."
According to BuzzFeed News, Cook will join representatives from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and other influential Silicon Valley players as part of a summit in San Jose, Calif., to discuss how each company might best leverage their respective online platforms to combat terrorists' use of social media as a recruitment tool. News of the upcoming summit was first reported by Reuters.
"The White House sees Silicon Valley as an integral part of fighting the propaganda from ISIL and other groups," an unnamed White House official told BuzzFeed News. "There needs to be a concerted effort to fight the ISIL propaganda."
While the list of tech executives attending tomorrow's meeting has not been revealed, sources informed Reuters that White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, National Intelligence Director James Clapper and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers will be present.
The session comes after deadly attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., sparked debate on the role social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, as well as encrypted messaging services similar to those offered by Apple and Google, play in terrorist recruitment, organization, planning and propaganda operations. Specifically, some have assigned partial blame on the tech industry for allowing contentious content to propagate online.
The democratization of high-tech communications hardware and services is a double-edged sword in that allowing consumer access to such assets inherently grants nefarious agents the same freedoms. For its part, companies like Twitter and Facebook enforce strict codes of conduct prohibiting terrorist activity.
Speaking on the topic of consumer protection against government surveillance, Cook has come down hard on agencies calling for softer encryption methods. According to Cook, removing Apple's existing strong encryption safeguards would not be of any benefit, and could do more harm than good.
"Terrorists will encrypt. They know what to do," Cook said in a February interview. "If we don't encrypt, the people we affect [by cracking down on privacy] are the good people. They are the 99.999 percent of people who are good." He added, "You don't want to eliminate everyone's privacy. If you do, you not only don't solve the terrorist issue but you also take away something that is a human right. The consequences of doing that are very significant."
Comments
It's not logical to believe that Apple's iPhone manufacturing jobs are somehow pacifying China. Have you not noticed how their military has participated in industrial espionage / hacking of major U.S. and European corporations, and that they are creating man-made islands in the South China Seas to stake a territorial claim on open waters? Apple also had to put an iCloud farm in China so that data of Chinese citizens stayed in China. No, China is very much not pacified by iPhone manufacturing jobs. And why do you think Tim Cook and Apple are really not pro-environmental responsibility? You don't seem to have your facts straight.
There will always be some third party app that offers encryption, like WhatsApp. Unless Android goes full curated app store, there is no way to stop terrorist recruitment. They have their own encryption. They only use traditional social media as an initial communication. Once the discussion gets more serious, they switch to private encrypted apps. The only way to stop the recruitment of young disillusioned, vulnerable people is through education and opportunity. Someone who has a bright future would never become a suicide bomber.
Islam is not going to throw out their Quran any more than Christians would throw out their Bible. The difference is, the New Testament part of the Bible forbids violence against anyone, for any reason, unlike the Quran which compels Muslims to kill all non-muslims. Because the USA was founded as a Christian nation, much of their religious ethics have been inherited, even by those Americans who do not technically belong to a Christian church or believe in their fundamental doctrine.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That is the golden rule, but that would seem to be in direct conflict with the USA philosophy, primarily that of the Republicans, to bomb them back to the stone age.
The word 'Until' practically translates into 'Forever' because we've already figured out what the 'hell is going on'. The Quran compels Muslims to kill all non-muslims.
Considering the huge proportion of US born muslim that are citizens (as most of the French attackers were) and the fact that religion is protected in the US constitution, he clearly knows what he's saying has no chance in hell; but, hey he doesn't care, as long as it inflames the base...
In our Canada, the two latest attacks were done by born Canadians with one parent arab, the other caucasian that were recently radicalized and were both mentally ill!.
Isis preys on the mentally ill, the disenfrenchised, etc; making them more isolated (even if they are citizens), is the opposite of what needs to be done to prevent radicalization.
Everything Trump says is "easy" solutions to very very complicated problems. Defining a scapegoat as a source of all problems.
Someone who that cast out would solve everything, make everything better. Keeping the whole world, modernity, change at bay solves everything (sic).
That's how populists always do it; so, he's using age old tactics known since forever in political discourse.
BTW, I wonder if people discussing here have actually talked, acquainted an actual Muslim, been to the middle east?
The amount of total repulsive BS being peddle is off the chart!
Seems borrowed from Trump's and Fox's and the GOP's talking points.
People are entitle to their various beliefs - no matter how ridiculous those beliefs sound to outsiders. They are not entitled to force those beliefs on others nor use violence against anyone with a different belief.
I was raised Christian (currently agnostic), but I know and have interacted with plenty of Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists and Agnostics as well as Christians - and they are all good, peaceful, law-abiding people. Anecdotal - I know - but it still proves my point. Its ridiculous to consider targeting all people that share a belief with any kind of sanctions, actions or restrictions - however, those people who encourage violence against others should be gathered up and shipped off the planet. There's no room for those types in my world.
From the tone of your last few posts, it sounds like you are a hater and your hate spreads much wider than it should.
These religious texts have been re-written multiple times since they were first published and my belief (which I'm entitled to) is that they have been modified to suit the desires of those in charge of the religion. I suspect that the content we see today is vastly different than what was originally written!
I would love to see all "organized" religion banned, dispersed, outlawed etc while leaving people free to worship in their own way and in a place of their choosing. "Organized religion" is the root of many of the worlds problems.
I believe that the Pope is on the top rung of the worlds largest pyramid scheme!!!