At a terror prevention summit in Vienna on Monday, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (VP) and the head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN), Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, once once more spoke out in favor of expanding police surveillance options to include messenger services such as WhatsApp or Telegram. Currently, the intelligence service and police can only monitor phone calls and SMS traffic by court order.
“War once morest the West”
In general, Haijawi-Pirchner warned that terrorist organizations such as the “Islamic State” (IS), Al-Qaeda or Hamas would “take advantage of the opportunity” to call for war once morest the West. This massively expands the danger scenario for the EU and Austria.
The terrorist groups would specifically use social media to spread disinformation and propaganda. Young people are particularly easily influenced. Radicalization in schools is also increasing.
