Families of Westminster terror victims attack WhatsApp and call for encryption of messages to be BANNED
FAMILIES of the Westminster terror attack victims yesterday demanded WhatsApp stop allowing terrorists to swap encrypted messages.
Their call at a pre-inquest hearing came as it emerged jihad monster Khalid Masood, 52, took steroids before he slaughtered five people.
He used a rented 4x4 to mow down innocents on Westminster Bridge then knifed to death PC Keith Palmer, 48, last March. Cops shot Masood dead.
Gareth Patterson, QC for the families, told how the killer used Facebook-owned WhatsApp “to send a jihadi document without any difficulty”.
He said: “We just don’t understand why it is necessary for WhatsApp and Telegram and these sort of media applications to have end-to-end encryption.”
Such coded messages hamper the police and security services. The QC also told the hearing, held at the Old Bailey, that web giants were ignoring extremism.
He said: “Why it is that radicalisation material continues to be freely available on the internet we don’t understand.”
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Full inquests will be held in September.
Chief Coroner, Judge Mark Lucraft QC, said: “Lives of many were torn apart by less than two minutes of high and terrible drama. I offer my sincere condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones.”