Facebook giving 'free pass' to criminals, says MI5 chief

The head of MI5 has accused Facebook of giving terrorists and other dangerous criminals a "free pass" by allowing stronger encryption on its network.

Ken McCallum said hundreds of counterterrorism investigations by the security service would be thwarted by the social media giant's plans to install end-to-end encryption, which means messages will only be visible to the sender and receiver.

Speaking on Times Radio, he said: "Decisions taken in California boardrooms are every bit as relevant to our ability to do our jobs as decisions taken in Afghanistan or Syria."

Mr McCallum, who succeeded Sir Andrew Parker as director general of MI5 in April last year, claimed Facebook's privacy plans for Messenger and Instagram meant it would be easier for terrorists to distribute illegal material and plot attacks without being detected.

The changes will also make it harder to identify child abusers and other serious criminals, it was alleged. Security experts say the social media company will no longer use algorithms to flag illegal content, as messages will only be visible to the sender and receiver.

Facebook insists stronger encryption measures are needed to ensure users are kept safe from hackers. But while Mr McCallum said he understood privacy was an important issue, he said allowing "absolutely no means" of bypassing encryption allowed dangerous criminals a "free pass" as they are enabled to carry out illegal activity without fear of being seen.

Mr McCallum said: "If you have end-to-end default encryption with absolutely no means of unwrapping that encryption, you are in effect giving those rare people - terrorists or people who are organising child sexual abuse online, some of the worst people in our society - a free pass where they know that nobody can see into what they are doing in those private living rooms."

In a statement to The Times, Facebook said it had measures in place to "combat criminal activity", adding it would continue to work with police and security services.

A spokesperson said: "We have no tolerance for terrorism or child exploitation on our platforms and are building strong safety measures into our plans, including using information like behavioural patterns and user reports to combat such abuse. We will continue to work with industry experts, law enforcement and security agencies to combat criminal activity and to keep people safe across all our platforms."

Read more: Facebook could face sanctions over encryption plans