Messenger surveillance

This is how the secret service wants to read online in future

Recruitment and brainwashing by terrorist organizations has moved online. Radicalization takes place online in children's rooms.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/NIBOR / Action Press / picturedesk.com, EPA-EFE/ERIK S. LESSER)

For a long time, constitutional protectors have been demanding the right to monitor messenger services in the fight against terror. Following the attack in Villach, this now seems possible - as the SPÖ has now also joined in.

According to the Directorate for State Security and Intelligence (DSN), it is a necessity to be able to read online chats live in future: "The aim must be to identify concrete plans for attacks and prevent them at an early stage. There must be no delay. But this would only affect people who are defined as high-risk threats and are specifically suspected of preparing attacks."