On September 11, 2001, an aid to Downing Street's then Labour Government decided that the terror attacks in New York were just what they needed. No, that probably wasn’t a good time to invite the Bush family to dinner. What unfolding events were, however, were the perfect opportunity for the government to, “bury bad news.”
Of course, this aid was severely reprimanded for their cutthroat opportunism. The only problem is that whether we like to admit it or not, governments do use terror to their advantage. This is why after a terror attack, politicians take to stages to announce yet more curtailing of different western freedoms.
There is only one problem. In the aftermath of the recent Parsons Green terror attack in London, UK PM Theresa May, has made a statement which in reality, amounts to little more than a power grab facepalm.
Theresa May seems to know nothing about the Internet
With the UK Daily Mail announcing that Theresa May is about to take on Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, due to how easy it is to find DIY explosive device instructions online, two things have just happened.
Firstly, you can bet your bottom dollar that anyone with extremist inclinations is now looking up just such instructions. Much more importantly, though, the Daily Mail and the UK government have yet again failed to address the real cybersecurity and extremist elephant in the room.
- namely, the nine-tenths of the Internet which Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, have absolutely nothing to do with.
Tory MP calls for Google to be held criminally liable
Cashing in on the free PR afforded by the Parsons Green attack, Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has stated that he wants to see Google held criminally liable for the recent atrocity.
Sadly, what Rees-Mogg and others seem to be forgetting, is that if they are going to hold Google criminally liable, they are also going to have to hold the U.S. Department of Defense criminally liable. This is because the U.S. Department of Defense part funds development of (and uses) the Internet anonymity software known as Tor.
Moreover, if governments really want to clamp down on how terrorists communicate, plan, and execute atrocities, it's the Dark Web and the Tor network which they should really start standing up against.
What is Tor & why should Theresa May be going after the Dark Web rather than Google?
What people like Theresa May and Jacob Rees-Mogg, continually fail to realise, is that Google isn’t the Internet.
In real life, Google and other search engines are just big, fabulously wealthy librarians. They don’t create pages about bombs, bananas, or anything else. They simply spend a lot of time indexing the Internet and pointing people like you and me at whatever pages match words we type into search bars.
When it comes to indexing the Internet, however, Google can’t actually see or index a whopping nine-tenths of it.
This is because the remaining nine-tenths make up the almost mythical part of the Internet which hackers and tech-savvy people refer to as the 'Dark Web.' What is more, it would be really bad news for civilization as we know it if Google did index that nine-tenths.
Put simply, the Dark Web is pure evil. In fact, if you were to download the free and easy to use Tor software which you need to access the Dark Web, the very first page you will arrive at will provide you with links to everything from illicit drugs for sale to murderers for hire and much much worse. (If you are a family man or woman, think your worst nightmare times ten.)
The most upsetting thing about the Tor network and the Dark Web, however, is that together they allow people to communicate completely anonymously.
This is why the Dark Web is the place to be if you are a terrorist, drug dealer, arms dealer, pedophile, or anyone else quite protective about their illicit web browsing habits.
When Theresa May announces war on Google she's actually fueling extremism
So, what happens when someone like Theresa May asks Google to stop making it possible for people to find explosive device instructions online? - Well, what basically happens is those pages disappear from where governments and intelligence agencies can track the identity and location of the people viewing such content.
Rather, however, than magically disappear, malicious material removed from Google will then inevitably just get pushed underground onto the Dark Web.
What’s more, if you are a terrorist or any other kind of moral degenerate, you will then be able to view that material using the aforementioned (and freely available) Tor software. In fact, if you were a terrorist, it would make more sense to research such material while masking your identity and location in the first place.
How Theresa May could really tackle online extremism
In many ways, Theresa May has had a rough ride since becoming the UK PM. Unlike politicians who just say they have, Theresa May really did inherit a sizable mess after being appointed. Going after Google in order to make the UK safer, however, really is just political grandstanding at the expense of what could be the UK's future security.
What Theresa May should be doing right now, is calling Donald Trump. Moreover, when she's got hold of him, she should be saying:
“Hey Don, you know that Internet anonymity software your military uses and helps make freely available to everyone in the known universe?"
"Well, how about this for a mad idea? How about you stop making that software freely available, and how about we start talking about dismantling the largest repository of malicious and outright evil information which has ever existed?”
After that, then Theresa May could think about going after Google. The only question is, how many more lives are people like Theresa May going to not save, (and perhaps even put at more risk) by not addressing the big Internet anonymity elephant in the room?