On Friday, November 13, 2015, Paris became the target of a massive terrorist attack carried out by members of the Islamic State (ISIS). From the moment the incident occurred, government officials began to exploit it, launching a campaign to promote mass surveillance laws.
Surely it didn't help either the statement of the Belgian Interior Minister who revealed that ISIS members could use the built‑in chat system of the PlayStation 4 to coordinate attacks. This particular system has been on the authorities' radar since a teenager from Austria used it to download bomb schematics last June.
Thus now, while law enforcement agencies are trying to discover how the attacks in Paris were carried out, government officials on the other hand use them as a pretext to promote propaganda that highlights the need for increased surveillance of online spaces.
The first is currently running in the United Kingdom media, and is called “Snooper’s Chart” and supports the law that is pending approval. It is a flawed law full of gaps and contradictions that has been pending for many months.
The United Kingdom authorities are now trying to seize the opportunity to exploit the destruction of Paris to pass a bill that would force all British telephone companies to store the internet browsing history of all their customers for at least one year.
The same applies to the US, where alarmism has begun to increase even through credible news sites, with high-ranking US officials warning citizens that the presence of online encryption could put everyone at risk.
Thus in the coming days we should expect attacks from government officials on anything they cannot break or control, starting from the Dark Web, all kinds of reliable encryption, ending with Bitcoin.
However, as thinking people we must know that where there is will there is also a way. If ISIS wants to destroy Europe with terrorist attacks, it will do so regardless of the means of communication it uses, encrypted online messages or pigeons.
