You may have seen the Sony PlayStation 4 console in the news for all the wrong reasons over the last couple of days.
A rapidly-spreading Forbes report claimed “at least one” PS4 had been discovered in raids on properties in Brussels in the hunt for the perpetrators of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris.
This came following comments from a Belgian official stating the console and the PlayStation Network was being used by ISIS, due to the difficulty in tracking communications.
However, the comments from Belgian federal home affairs minister Jan Jambon came three days before the attacks in Paris and were referring to security weaknesses in general rather than the specific hit on the French capital.
The author of the Forbes story has now admitted making a mistake, telling Kotaku he “misread the minister’s statement” and clarifying there is no public evidence of what was discovered during the raids.
So, while it’s still plausible the PS4 is being used by terrorists to aid secretive conversation, there is no hard evidence directly linking the device with the most recent atrocity.
See also: Facebook activates Safety Check following Paris attacks
When asked for comment, a Sony spokesperson said: “PlayStation 4 allows for communication amongst friends and fellow gamers, in common with all modern connected devices. 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.”
In May this year a 14-year-old boy was jailed for two years for downloading bomb making plans to his PlayStation console.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
