UK Home Office Minister: Internet firms are ‘ruthless profiteers’

Ben Wallace, British Minister of State for Security at the Home Office, claimed in an interview with a British news outlet that Internet companies are ‘ruthless profiteers’, costing the governments extensive resources as they fail to assist in the identification and removal of online extremism. Wallace further said that the firms’ refusal to provide security services with access to encrypted messages is ‘turning the Internet into an anarchic violent space’. Wallace is considering several policy options, including taxation, which would incentivise companies to take a more proactive role or ‘compensate them for their inaction’.