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11/25/2024 02:05:29 am

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Cameron wants to Ban Snapchat, Facetime, iMessage as Terrorist Tools

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday he's considering banning messaging apps such as Snapchat, WhatsApp, iMessage and many more if the companies running these apps don't give the UK's intelligence services backdoor information.

He noted that data should be readily available to Britain's intelligence agencies for the apps to continue in the UK.

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Campaigning for another term, Cameron said the Paris terror attacks influenced his decision to have these apps banned. He noted these messaging apps should secure the users' communications.

He added these apps provide safe havens for terrorists to communicate and make their attacks possible without anyone knowing of their plans ahead of time. He then requested intelligence agencies and government officials should have access over these apps although there were signed warrants issued.

"Are we going to allow a means of communications which it simply isn't possible to read? My answer to that question is: 'No, we must not.' Let me stress again, this cannot happen unless the home secretary personally signs a warrant. We have a better system for safeguarding this very intrusive power than probably any other country that I can think of."

Although the Prime Minister presented his suggestion as a positive step, a lot of people took to their social networking sites to note it was a breach of freedom of speech.

Twitter user @Gary Spedding said: "David Cameron wants to ban Snapchat? Because taking selfies w/ some text is definitely one of the most sophisticated ways to plan terrorism."

Another from @AlexForey tweeted: "Let me tweet that again. David Cameron, who marched yesterday for freedom, wants to ban any messaging service with end-to-end encryption."

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