Senior British policing officials are sounding the alarm that digital tools and online platforms are being increasingly used to plan and amplify threats against the United Kingdom, and they say law enforcement cannot meet the challenge alone.
Police say platforms are central to modern threats
Vicki Evans, a senior national counterterrorism coordinator at the Metropolitan Police, described policing the digital domain as an unrelenting effort. She urged closer cooperation with technology firms so police can keep pace with how threats evolve online.
"There is a 'continual battle' against threats online ... it's not something we can do alone."
The warning, conveyed in reporting by the Associated Press, underscores how fast-moving communications tools — from social media networks to encrypted messaging and other online services — have become vectors for both organizing attacks and spreading disinformation. British authorities and prosecutors have pointed to episodes in which violent acts and sabotage were linked to online coordination and influence campaigns, including incidents tied to foreign intelligence activity.
What police say they need
Evans and other senior officers are pressing for enhanced collaboration with the technology sector. That includes better access to evidence, faster response to abuse reports and technical help to trace activity conducted across platforms and services.
- Faster access to data for investigations and threat disruption
- Improved platform cooperation on takedowns and abuse reporting
- Technical partnership to address encrypted or distributed services
Those requests reflect longstanding tensions between law enforcement needs and technology companies' policies on privacy, user rights and platform moderation. The police emphasis on industry assistance follows public episodes in which attackers or state-backed actors apparently used online networks to coordinate or obscure harmful activity; the AP story included a reference to a 2024 warehouse fire in east London that prosecutors linked to foreign intelligence-directed actions.
| Official | Role |
|---|---|
| Vicki Evans | Senior national counterterrorism coordinator, Metropolitan Police |
The call for cooperation arrives as governments worldwide grapple with how to hold platforms accountable while respecting civil liberties. For the technology sector, the message from Britain's policing leadership is clear: without closer operational ties and improved transparency, detecting and disrupting digitally mediated threats will remain harder and slower.
How companies respond — whether by adjusting transparency policies, expanding law-enforcement liaison teams or altering product design to better enable lawful investigative access — will shape the practical ability of police to act on online intelligence. The balance struck will have implications for national security, user privacy and the governance of global digital infrastructure.
