British Intelligence Chief Accuses Facebook, Twitter Of Helping Terrorists
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A British intelligence expert is calling out a handful of Silicon Valley tech companies, accusing them of helping terrorists.
ISIS is one of the first terrorist groups to aggressively use social media, and the head of Britain's GCHQ, Robert Hannigan says companies like Twitter and Facebook are helping them.
"Increasingly their services not only host the material of violent extremism or child exploitation, but are the routes for the facilitation of crime and terrorism," Hannigan wrote in a Financial Times op-ed piece.
But Joe Felter of Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation says that isn't fair.
"You don't go after car manufacturers to stop drive-by shootings in the same way it's really inappropriate to target internet companies to stop acts of terror," Felter told KPIX 5.
Felter says social media is actually helping to combat terrorism, with more groups like ISIS being exposed online and generating anger towards the groups.
"You need to discredit and delegitimize this ideology and certainly social media has a role to play in doing that," according to Felter.
After Edward Snowden claimed the government is snooping, Hannigan claims tech giants are working too hard to keep the government out when they should be working together.