Hillary Clinton Calls on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to Help With Fight Against ISIS
The democratic candidate was interviewed on "This Week."
— -- Hillary Clinton on Sunday called on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to help aid with the fight against ISIS and their online radicalization efforts, during an exclusive interview on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
Clinton’s remark comes four days after a married couple shot and killed 14 people and injured 21 others in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. The rampage is now a federal terror investigation, with officials saying the suspects, Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, appear to have been inspired by ISIS.
Referring to the couple, Clinton told Stephanopoulos, “If you look at the story about this woman and maybe the man, too, who got radicalized, self-radicalized, we’re going to need help from Facebook, and from YouTube and from Twitter.”
"They cannot permit the recruitment and the actual direction of attacks or the celebration of violence by this sophisticated Internet user,” she said about the social networking sites.
"They're going to have to help us take down these announcements and these appeals,” Clinton added.
Stephanopoulos pressed Clinton further, asking whether companies like Apple should be allowed to continue proving encryption to customers which prevents the company from reading user’s text messages.
"This is something I've said for a long time, George,” Clinton said. "I have to believe that the best minds in the private sector, in the public sector could come together to help us deal with this evolving threat.”
She added: "I know what the argument is from our friends in the industry. I respect that. Nobody wants to be feeling like their privacy is invaded. But I also know what the argument is on the other side from law enforcement and security professionals.”
"So, please, let's get together and try to figure out the best way forward,” she said.
ISIS is known to use intense online tactics to recruit new members around the world, including in the U.S. Earlier this year, the FBI said there has been over 900 ISIS-related investigations in all 50 states.
In recent weeks, Clinton has repeatedly said that the U.S. must figure out new ways to fight ISIS online, and in a speech last month, called on Silicon Valley to help.
“We need Silicon Valley not to view government as its adversary,” she said at the Center on Foreign Relations. “We need to challenge our best minds in the private sector to work with our best minds in the public sector to develop solutions that will both keep us safe and protect our privacy.”