Terrorists Mock Bids to End Use of Social Media - The New York Times

Final paragraphs from a timely trade-off reality check; also see Why Silicon Valley Won't Enlist in Anti-Terror Fight (BloombergBusiness) and Eric Schmidt on How to Build a Better Web (NYT)

"Companies say that weakening the encryption in their products would only make regular users more vulnerable to cybertheft and set a bad precedent for other countries to follow. What’s more, they note, there are plenty of encryption options not made by American companies and many of them are free.

Addressing the topic on Monday, the White House urged Silicon Valley to find a compromise.

“We are going to resist the urge to trample a bunch of civil liberties,” Mr. Earnest said in the White House briefing. But he added, “We don’t want terrorists to have a safe haven in cyberspace.”"

Terrorists Mock Bids to End Use of Social Media - The New York Times