Several UK media outlets—including the Daily Mail, The Mirror, and The Telegraph—have claimed that Sony's PlayStation 4 is being used by ISIS/ISIL/Daesh to plan its attacks, with The Express even saying that a PS4 was used to plot the recent horrifying attacks on Paris.
However, as uncovered by Eurogamer, the sourcing and reporting for these stories is extremely suspect. Most are based on comments from Belgium's deputy prime minister, Jan Jambon, which came from a debate on ISIS's use of online recruitment. The debate was held three days before Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris.
"PlayStation 4 is even more difficult to keep track of than WhatsApp," he said. "It's very, very difficult for our services—not only Belgian services but international services—to decrypt the communication that is done via PlayStation 4."
Jambon is most likely referring to the PS4's Party Chat feature, which allows players to exchange voice and text messages one-to-one or in a group, and is indeed encrypted. However, there's no evidence that the feature is actually being used by terrorists, let alone that it played an integral part in the Paris attacks.
The mainstream UK media has linked Jambon's comments with the Paris attacks by way of an International Business Times article, which claimed that a PS4 was discovered in raids in Belgium following the attacks. However, this remains unconfirmed by the authorities. Notably, a quick read of the IBT article—which contains the line "ISIL could convey an attack plan in Super Mario Maker's coins and share it privately with another PS4 user"—would raise suspicions about the validity of the report.
The IBT article itself was based on another article on Forbes, which now features a large correction at the top saying: "It has not been confirmed, as originally written, that a console was found as a result of specific Belgian terror raids. Minister Jambon was speaking about tactics he knows ISIS to be using generally."
That these two reports led to the publication of headlines like "ISIS terrorists used Sony PlayStation 4 to plot Paris massacre" (The Express) is at best misinformed, at worst purposefully sensationalist. That headline has since been changed to "Did ISIS terrorists use a PlayStation 4 to plot Paris massacre in the streets?"
As Eurogamer helpfully highlighted, "[none of the stories] pointed out the likelihood that a PS4, a console that has sold just shy of 30m units, would be found at a home in Belgium occupied by a person in their twenties."
Sony has since issued a statement, which reads:
"PlayStation 4 allows for communication amongst friends and fellow gamers and, in common with all modern connected devices, this has the potential to be abused. However, we take our responsibilities to protect our users extremely seriously and we urge our users and partners to report activities that may be offensive, suspicious or illegal. When we identify or are notified of such conduct, we are committed to taking appropriate actions in conjunction with the appropriate authorities and will continue to do so."
As the world tries to come to grips with the atrocities that took place in Paris at the weekend, questions are being asked about how such attacks could ever have taken place. Yesterday, it emerged that several former intelligence officials and media analysts were blaming NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden for revealing intelligence agencies' surveillance capabilities. The comments came following evidence that the attackers from Syria were using encrypted communications.
As we noted in the report, terrorist organisations have been using encryption of various sorts for more than 15 years at least—way before Snowden's whistleblowing. In the UK, the attacks have prompted further discussion around the controversial "Snooper's Charter," which would give the UK government the power to demand backdoor access to software and equipment, as well as make it a crime to reveal the existence of government hacking.
reader comments
96