President Obama backs call for tech backdoors

President Barack Obama wants a backdoor to track people’s social media messages.

The President came to the defense of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s call for tech companies to create holes in their technology to allow the government to track suspected terrorists or criminals. “Social media and the Internet is the primary way in which these terrorist organizations are communicating,” President Obama said during a press conference with PM Cameron on Jan 16. “That’s not different from anybody else, but they’re good at it and when we have the ability to track that in a way that is legal, conforms with due process, rule of law and presents oversight, then that’s a capability that we have to preserve,” he said. While President Obama measured his comments, he voiced support for the views expressed by Cameron and FBI Director James Comey, who have worried about tech companies’ increasing trends towards building digital walls around users’ data that no one but them can access.