Back door access necessary in social media, Five Eyes Alliance nations

London: In a meeting held in London, intelligence agencies called for a special access to social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp to prevent terror attacks and to combat child abuse. A meeting of ‘Five Eyes Alliance’, an independent and influential group of intelligence agencies at the international level, started in the British capital of London. The issue of cybersecurity has been given a priority in this meeting, and it is said that the demand regarding social media was put forth in the course of the discussion.

It was against the background of the Second World War that the intelligence agencies of the United States and the United Kingdom, had signed an agreement of cooperation. After that, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were included in the agreement. This group of these five nations is known as the Five Eyes Alliance. Steps were taken to strengthen the cooperation, against Russia, during the Cold War period. There is also a provision in the agreement that prevents these countries from divulging any information regarding the signatories to any other countries, along with cooperation.

Over the last year, there is a lot of talk over the monopolistic attitude and many other issues of the bigwigs in the technology sector. The United Kingdom, the United States, France, Australia and New Zealand have initiated actions against these companies, known as Big Techs. The actions include taxing these companies, imposing penalties for past mistakes and keeping a tab on the use of information submitted by the consumers.

At the same time, various reports from around the world consistently, point out the effective use of the internet by the terrorist groups actively operating in different regions and the criminal gangs. The intelligence and security agencies, even in the developed countries, are unable to restrict their activities and the structure and the security provisions of the social media platforms are responsible for the failure. The intelligence agencies, therefore, have demanded access to these platforms to restrict the activities of the terrorist groups and the criminal gangs and to track the crimes committed by them.

The Five Eyes Alliance is an influential and leading intelligence group in the world, and therefore the demand made by them has attracted attention. It is claimed that there will be a significant upheaval in the technology sector if this demand is accepted.