The new counterterrorism measures, which include stronger monitoring of "messenger services," come in the wake of a thwarted attack at a Taylor Swift concert.
ADVERTISEMENTAustria's chancellor presented a pack of measures to fight counterterrorism to his intelligence council on Tuesday, including stronger monitoring of "messenger services," in the wake of a thwarted terrorist attack over the weekend at a Taylor Swift concert.
"It has become clear that Islamist terror poses a threat to security and freedom in Austria," a list of priorities from the government, published in the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitüng, read.
"Legal measures should empower the services of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of the Interior to monitor the content of messages".
The move comes after Chancellor Karl Nehammer told German media over the weekend that Austria's intelligence agencies should be able to decrypt messenger apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram, so security agencies can review content there when necessary.
Austrian police arrested three teenagers between the ages of 17 and 19 in connection with the attempted terrorist activity on August 8, police told media in a press conference.
A search of one of the 19-year-old’s house found the technical equipment needed to make explosives.
Past attempts to get messaging data for police
This isn't the first time the Austrian parliament has tried to extend social media monitoring powers to its police force.
In 2018, the Austrian government passed a law that allowed police forces to review real-time conversations on WhatsApp and other services if a court order allows it in connection to terrorist activity.
One section of the newly passed Code of Criminal Procedure (or Strafprozessordnung in German) let a so-called "federal trojan" software bypass encryption on these messaging applications.
The Austrian Constitutional Court eventually struck down parts of that law in 2019, saying that it was a "grave encroachment on users' rights to privacy," according to its ruling.
The ruling called the Trojan software a "particularly intense" form of surveillance because the data obtained by computer systems includes information about personal preferences, tendencies, and their lifestyle.
After a 2020 terrorist attack in Vienna, the government tried again.
The case for a federal trojan has been gaining traction this year after Egisto Ott, a former Austrian intelligence officer, was charged with allegedly handing over cell phone data of high-ranking officials to the Russians.
Epicenter.works, an Austrian-based fundamental rights NGO, said in a July press release that a federal trojan to bypass encryption would "mass jeopardise the security of all smartphones".
"For a state trojan, the state has to spend taxpayers' money on security loopholes… this is where the absurd reversal of interests become clear," the statement says.
ADVERTISEMENTFor now, the country’s directorate of state protection (DSN) currently has a division of their national police force that reviews complaints made about online content that deals with extremism or terrorism.
Those complaints will then be forwarded to the social media company dealing with them, which has to decide whether the content violates their standards.
