Sony has responded to comments from Belgium's deputy prime minister and minister of Security and Home Affairs, who claimed communication over PlayStation 4 is more difficult to monitor than WhatsApp.
As part of a debate organised by Politico, held three days before Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris, Jan Jambon said international security services struggle to decrypt communication via PlayStation 4.
"The thing that keeps me awake at night is the guy behind his computer, looking for messages from IS and other hate preachers," he said, as reported by The Bulletin.
"PlayStation 4 is even more difficult to keep track of than WhatsApp."
Politico, which hosted the debate, published a video which reveals further comments from Jambon on PS4 in an article headlined, "Why terrorists love PS4".
"The most difficult communication between these terrorists is via PlayStation 4," he said.
"It's very, very difficult for our services - not only Belgian services but international services - to decrypt the communication that is done via PlayStation 4."
Jambon mentioned PS4 as part of a discussion about Belgian counterrorism and the difficulty it faced countering the skilled online recruitment of ISIL.
Responding to Jambon's comments, Sony admitted the PS4 could be "abused", but stressed the communication features of the console were in common with all modern connected devices.
A Sony spokesperson issued Eurogamer the following statement:
"PlayStation 4 allows for communication amongst friends and fellow gamers and, in common with all modern connected devices, this has the potential to be abused. However, we take our responsibilities to protect our users extremely seriously and we urge our users and partners to report activities that may be offensive, suspicious or illegal. When we identify or are notified of such conduct, we are committed to taking appropriate actions in conjunction with the appropriate authorities and will continue to do so."
