President Obama calls on Silicon Valley to battle online terrorist recruitments, addresses USA on terror

The leader of the free world has called upon the help of Silicon Valley to combat terrorist groups' recruitment and promotion of violence over social media and electronic communication platforms.

On a televised speech on primetime, President Barack Obama said "I will urge high-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice."

The recent act of terror on San Bernardino, California has prompted the president to give his first formal address about the threat of terrorism, according to News Week. Fourteen people lost their lives and 21 more were injured in an attack carried out by Syed Farook and wife Tashfeen Malik, whom Obama referred to as people who have gone down the "dark path of radicalization". 

According to Yahoo Finance, the shooting also rekindled the long-running debate over Washington's digital surveillance effort in finding and capturing extremists. The White House wants tech companies in helping them restrict the use of social media to achieve violent ends.

According to a senior administration official, the White House will talk to tech companies about developing a "clearer understanding of when we believe social media is being used actively and operationally to promote terrorism."  

In a report from CNN, the president also stated that they would no longer win the war against terrorism if he repeats what he believes as mistaken mass deployments of ground forces in the war in Iraq. Although 53% of those polled CNN/ORC said they wanted the US to send ground troops to fight ISIS, the president has passionately said it should not be.

The president said ground wars like those in Iraq or Syria is what groups like ISIL want. "They know they can't defeat us on the battlefield. But they also know that if we occupy foreign lands, they can maintain insurgencies for years, killing thousands of our troops and draining our resources, and using our presence to draw new recruits."

Instead, the White House wants to keep talking to Silicon Valley about weakening their encryption so that the government can monitor communications, emphasizing that the U.S. and allies in Europe and elsewhere "want to make sure that encryption is not utilized in a way that allows for a space, a dark space, for terrorist groups to be plotting operations and attacks."