Five Eyes Urges Broader Censorship Under “Protect the Children” Campaign

This is interesting that Five Eyes is putting out a paper on the radicalization of young people online in a ploy against encryption and for identifying people (think digital ID). Of interest, recently the US government has been telling people to get off the phone networks because of Chinese hacking, and use encrypted chat clients like Signal and Telegram (Telegram Founder was arrested and detained in France, so compromised?). You’d have to think they have access to encrypted communication on those platforms via a backdoor or have broken the encryption (Telegram uses their own encryption not based on established cryptographic norms), and it’s legally less restrictive than the telecommunications networks to access as they see fit. Consequently, the young people angle combined with all these Muslims they’ve brought into western nations could easily be turned into a compelling reason for crackdowns on privacy. Factor in how effective the psyop for “Sovereign Citizens” has been, to where there is no shortage of useful idiots that can be weaponized for any agenda.

https://reclaimthenet.org/ive-eyes-targets-encryption-online-anonymity-censorship-extremism

Global spy alliance shifts focus to encryption, calling for sweeping collaboration across governments and tech platforms.

By Didi Rankovic

A surreal cityscape with large blue eyes overlaying tall buildings, creating a futuristic and mysterious atmosphere.

A network facilitating spy agencies’ intelligence-sharing between the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, known as Five Eyes, has its sights set on encryption, and proceeding from that, also online anonymity.

Even more online censorship would also not be a bad idea – these are some of the highlights from the first public-facing paper the organizations behind this group have published.

We obtained a copy of the paper for you here.

And Five Eyes is not above promoting its ultimate and much more far-reaching goals by using the good old “think of the children” – the paper’s title is, Young People and Violent Extremism: A Call for Collective Action.

Both it and an accompanying press release choose to consider online encryption as merely a tool used by criminals. At the same time, the paper is ignoring the fact that the entire internet ecosystem, from communications to banking and everything in between, requires strong encryption both for privacy, and security.

But, Five Eyes focuses only on communications, which they vaguely refer to as online environments, and ones that can allow sex offenders access to children, they also mention extremists, and equally vaguely, “other” malign actors.

Since encrypted platforms provide anonymity, the spies from the five countries (who refer to the state of affairs as, “a large degree of anonymity”) don’t like that either – and again link it to negative scenarios, such as “radicalization to violence.”

The paper is not specific on the exact mechanisms that would ramp up online censorship, but mentions both governments and the tech industry; the first category should “strengthen legislative support for law enforcement,” while the other is urged to “take greater responsibility for the harm done on their platforms.”

Gaming platforms Discord, Instagram, Roblox as well as TikTok are singled out as “seemingly innocuous” – but the way Five Eyes sees it, they make violent extremism content “more accessible.”

The “whole-of-society response” is the proposed solution to the problem of radicalization of minors in these countries. And the documents vow the alliance will continue working with “government agencies, the education sector, mental health and social well-being services, communities and technology companies.”

“It is important to work together early as once law enforcement and security agencies need to become involved, it is often too late,” the paper warns.

And so, a network whose members are likely, in one capacity or another, behind many of the existing attacks on online encryption and anonymity – has now come out as the campaign’s supposedly “latest recruit.”