Companies that refuse to comply with wiretap orders would be penalized under FBI-backed legislation that is being drawn up by a government task force, RT reports.
That means companies like Google and Facebook would be fined tens of thousands of dollars a day for refusing to cooperate.
“We don’t have the ability to go to court and say, ‘We need a court order to effectuate the intercept.’ Other countries have that. Most people assume that’s what you’re getting when you go to a court,” FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann told the Washington Post.
This is the latest effort by law enforcement to better monitor online communications.