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Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Mary McCord said Tuesday that metadata is of limited use in terror probes. | AP Photo

The head of the Justice Departments counterterrorism branch is keeping the pressure on for action to allow investigators to obtain access to encrypted communications.

Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Mary McCord said Tuesday that metadata is of limited use in terror probes and the problem the FBI refers to as going dark remains a real problem for law enforcement.

All the metadata in the world cannot replace content when it comes to the short lead time that we have between inception of an attack and committing an attack, McCord told a George Washington University conference on online extremism.

When its that fast, metadata is just not going to answer that.These are the times where encrypted communications and the inability of law enforcement to get into those communications.is so important to find a solution.

McCord praised social media platforms for removing content that seems to fuel radicalization and violates sites terms of service, but she also called on tech companies to explore automated solutions that can prevent such content from appearing even for a brief time on websites.

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I encourage them to put even more effort into automation, machine learning to see if there arent ways to prevent certain contentthe most violent, the most inciteful to terrorism to keep that from ever posting, she said.

The veteran prosecutor said one challenge with takedown systems that require human intervention is that disturbing content can go viral in certain circles very quickly. Once that information spreads on the internet, taking down from one or two sites may be ineffective, she said.

A senior law enforcement official who spoke at the same conference Monday, FBI General Counsel James Baker, said the bureau isnt pushing specific legislation on encryption at the moment but is trying fuel continued public discussion about the costs of encryption.

The Obama administration punted on the contentious encryption issue during its final year in office. The Trump administration has yet to stake out a clear position on the question.

Josh Gerstein is a senior reporter for POLITICO.

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Justice Department anti-terror chief keeps pressing on encryption - Politico (blog)