Tech Companies Are Caught in the Middle of Terror Fight

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve heads to Silicon Valley to enlist a new force in his fight on terror: US tech giants. Weeks after deadly terror attacks in Paris, and days after apparent copycat shootings in Denmark, France’s top cop plans to meet with senior executives at Apple, Google, Facebook, and Twitter. His message: US tech companies and social networks must do more to rid their services of extremist postings, and should open up encryption to ease government surveillance.

“We are facing a new threat,” Cazeneuve said in an interview ahead of the trip. “We need tech companies to realize that they have an important role to play.” Cazeneuve’s West Coast tour raises European pressure on US tech companies over how best to use the Internet to fight terrorists. Executives say it thrusts them into a tricky dilemma -- how to support their users’ privacy and free-speech rights while also being tough on terrorism.