This archive report was first published on 8 October 2019.
Published on October 8, 2019, by JOHN WALUBENGO, a lecturer at Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT.
Accessing private social media conversations is a complex issue, with governments facing varying degrees of success depending on their technical capabilities, time, resources, and political architecture.
Historically, governments had unlimited access to citizen conversations through telephone landlines owned by government monopolies. However, with the shift to Internet-based technologies owned by private sector players, it became increasingly difficult for governments to tap conversations.
Encryption has improved significantly, making it infeasible for governments to listen in on conversations. One way to circumvent this is for governments to create their own social media platforms, as seen in China's WeChat, which has over 1 billion users and provides unlimited access to their private conversations.
Democratic societies, like the US, have access to social media conversations but must first obtain a warrant from a judge or magistrate. Even with a warrant, it may be impossible to access private conversations if the service provider is not domiciled in the country or uses end-to-end encryption.
Coercion or covert action are the only mechanisms governments have to access private conversations in such cases. The US has occasionally battled with big tech companies to access user passwords or encryption mechanisms.
It's essential for users to know that while service providers guarantee end-to-end encryption during transmission, the same may not apply to data stored on devices. Engineers can potentially crack devices to access private communication, and covert methods, such as planting agents within social media groups, can also be used.
