Austria chancellor urges more comms monitoring after Taylor Swift plot

VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria’s chancellor stated on Sunday his nation’s intelligence businesses ought to have better energy to watch communications on messaging apps to cease extremists after a deliberate suicide assault at a Taylor Swift live performance in Vienna was thwarted this week.

Swift’s three deliberate live shows had been cancelled after Austrian authorities acquired wind of a plot led by a 19-year-old youth to launch an ISIS-inspired suicide assault at a soccer stadium the place tens of hundreds of followers had been planning to attend the reveals.

Information of the deliberate assault has reanimated debate over the tight restrictions Austria has compared to different western nations on the monitoring of messaging communications simply because the nation gears up for an election on Sept. 29.

“We actually want our businesses to be upgraded technically so that they’re on an equal footing with terrorists, with organised crime, so we are able to fight them,” Chancellor Karl Nehammer stated in an interview with Germany’s Bild newpsper.

“It’s very important that messenger companies like WhatsApp, Sign, Telegram might be decrypted for safety authorities, below judicial oversight, whereas upholding the rule of regulation,” added Nehammer, who’s looking for re-election subsequent month.

Nehammer, who stated Austria acquired a tip from a international intelligence service over the deliberate Swift assault, stated the primary suspects up to now within the case had been captured.

However he spoke of extra arrests being made as police proceed investigations amongst felony networks. Extra ISIS supporters had been recognized, he stated.

(Writing by Dave Graham; Enhancing by Angus MacSwan)