Five Eyes Meeting Held August 28-29, 2018 Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen traveled to Australia for the Five Country Ministerial.  During the Ministerial, Secretary Nielsen met with senior security officials from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom to discuss persistent and emerging threats and how the “Five Eyes” nations can work jointly to thwart them. Read more via source Five Country Ministerial 2018 Official Communiqué We, the Homeland Security, Public Safety, and Immigration Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States met on the Gold Coast, Australia, on August 28-29 2018, to discuss how we can better collaborate to meet our common security challenges. We reaffirmed that the close and enduring five country partnership, developed following the Second World War, remains fundamental to the security and prosperity of our nations. The 2018 Five Country Ministerial (FCM), which in previous years has achieved advancements in information and intelligence sharing on border protection and counter-terrorism, has matured to become the pre-eminent forum for collaboration among the five countries on domestic security issues. This year's FCM meeting recalibrated the forum to focus on tangible deliverables and practical collaboration on counter-terrorism, countering violent extremism, cyber security, countering foreign interference, protecting critical infrastructure, border management and law enforcement. A free, open, safe and secure internet The internet and digital technologies are increasingly central to contemporary life and to the social and economic development of our societies. Global connectivity enables faster communication, better access to services, and new ways to conduct business and share news and information. We affirmed our vision for a free, open, safe, and secure internet, which is fundamental to our economic growth and prosperity. Just as the internet provides many benefits, it also provides opportunities for people to carry out crimes and spread illicit content.  Terrorism, child sexual abuse and exploitation, violent extremism, and coercive acts of interference and disinformation are enduring concerns of government. The anonymous, instantaneous, and networked nature of the online environment has magnified these threats and opened up new vectors for harm. Governments have a responsibility to protect those within our borders against both physical and digital threats, and to ensure that the rule of law prevails online, as it does offline. We have a responsibility to tackle these challenges in a coordinated and effective way. While senior digital industry representatives did not accept our invitation to participate in discussions on pressing issues regarding the illicit use of online spaces, we reiterated the need for digital industry to take more responsibility for content promulgated and communicated through their platforms and applications. We agreed to a Joint Statement on Countering the Illicit Use of Online Spaces, outlining our communities' high expectations of digital industry companies, with a focus on countering online child sexual abuse and exploitation, and violent extremist and terrorist material. We called for the further development and expansion of capabilities to prevent upload of illicit content, and to execute urgent and immediate takedowns. We reiterated the importance of industry investment in human and automated detection capabilities, underscoring the need for major companies to set industry standards and to help smaller companies deploy these capabilities to their platforms, including through the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). And we called for increased efforts to counter foreign interference and disinformation conducted via online platforms. We also undertook to enhance feedback loops between government and industry on intelligence and information, including trends and sources of illicit content, with the aim of more comprehensively responding to malicious actors online, to facilitate faster identification and removal of illicit content, and increase public awareness of the sources of disinformation and other forms of malicious foreign interference. Read more via source Additional sources https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/national-security/five-country-ministerial-2018/countering-illicit-use-online-spaces https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/national-security/five-country-ministerial-2018/access-evidence-encryption https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2018/08/five-country-ministerial-meeting-and-quintet-of-attorneys-general-concludes.html https://www.gov.uk/government/news/home-secretary-attends-five-country-ministerial