The AFP and ASIO have Meta in their sights
While Elon Musk's X is being criticised by all sides of politics, the heads of ASIO and the AFP have signalled they are more concerned about Meta and its encryption plans.
When parts of a joint address by two of Australia’s most senior security heads were dropped out to the media on Tuesday night, the whole tech sector appeared to be in the firing line.
AFP boss Reece Kershaw and ASIO director-general Mike Burgess accused tech companies of fanning the flames of disinformation and misinformation, and of blocking access to encrypted messaging applications that allow terrorists, violent extremists and child abusers to communicate.
But despite the public disagreement between the government and Elon Musk's X on its propagation of misinformation and failure to remove violent content, in the question-and-answer segment of Kershaw and Burgess' appearance at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday it became clear that it's actually Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, that's of particular concern when it comes to the operation of police and intelligence operations.
“Meta is about halfway through their end-to-end encryption rollout,” Kershaw explained, referencing Facebook Messenger becoming end-to-end encrypted by default in much of the world.
