Peter Dutton slams tech titans for failing to provide Five Eyes intelligence alliance with messages of paedophiles

Peter Dutton slams major digital platforms for failing to provide the Five Eyes intelligence alliance with messages of paedophiles.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: Colin Murty

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has lashed the major digital platforms, including Google, Facebook and Apple, for failing to provide the Five Eyes intelligence alliance with backdoor access to read the encrypted messages of paedophiles.

Mr Dutton, who spoke to 2GB radio before he boarded a plane bound for Washington to attend a conference on protecting the victims of child sexual abuse, said the leading intelligence alliance was moving to ratchet up pressure on the big tech companies.

“These companies are really pushing back, but we have to stand up to them because the rules that apply in our towns and cities should apply online,” Mr Dutton told 2GB. “If you’ve got a photograph of a child being sexually abused, the police can see that with a warrant, but if you send that picture as an attachment on an encrypted messaging app then police can’t discover it.”

Mr Dutton’s lashed the technology giants’ reluctance as “unacceptable.”

“It’s unacceptable these companies have failed to provide adequate assistance so far, and we are really kicking this along again,” he said.

Mr Dutton said social media companies needed to reflect community standards, which was why the world’s leading intelligence alliance of Australia, US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, were “shaming” them into action.

“We can’t allow the proliferation online that’s taking place and it’s doubled in the last 12 months,” Mr Dutton said. “...they’ll pull down images but when encryption is used to protect these paedophiles the companies won’t allow police to have access.

“It doesn’t make sense because we can stop children becoming victim to a paedophile.”