US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard took to X to boast that months of pressure from her office, Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance had forced a climbdown from Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
For those not in the know, the Brits had originally ordered Job’s Mob to provide access to encrypted data stored on its cloud platform so that British spooks and coppers could get evidence on criminals, terrorists and paedophiles. Apple responded by removing the service in the UK, meaning that such encrypted protection did not apply in Blighty.
Then Apple complained to its government claiming that an encrypted backdoor would mean that the UK rules would apply to American criminals, terrorists and paedophiles using its cloud service and for some reason the Trump administration acted.
However, despite Gabbard's claim, the UK government is not confirming or denying that it has backed down.
“We will always take all actions necessary at the domestic level to keep UK citizens safe,” muttered a British government spokesperson.
In 2016, Job’s Mob had already told the FBI to get stuffed when asked to unlock a terrorist’s iPhone. So it came as no surprise that it wasn’t going to roll over for Whitehall’s snooping ambitions.