Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter and Square, has told Sky News there is a "middle ground" in the row over encryption between governments and Silicon Valley.

"I think there's an absolute middle ground," he said. "I think it really has to be measured by the individual and how they're using it.

"As we talk about security, we also need to talk about accountability and about transparency and how things work.

"At Square, we're very proactive about our outreach to government agencies to make sure that we ensure more safety across the board.

"And encryption is a really really important part of that."


:: Messaging apps and terror: Seven key questions

Mr Dorsey was speaking to Sky News as Square, a mobile payments company, launched in the UK.

Image: The Home Secretary says police should have access to social media platforms

Square lets small businesses accept credit and debit cards; its systems use encryption to keep customers' and businesses' financial information safe.

After the Westminster attack, Home Secretary Amber Rudd called on companies like WhatsApp to give government access to their encrypted services.

On Monday, a spokesperson for Downing Street repeated Ms Rudd's calls: "What the Home secretary said yesterday is, where there are instances where law enforcement agencies wish to gain access to messages which are important to an investigation, they should be able to do so."

The Home Secretary has also said internet companies need to do more to remove extremist content from their platforms.

On Thursday she will summon technology bosses from Twitter, Facebook and Google for discussions.

Mr Dorsey defended Twitter.

Rudd calls for access to Whatsapp data

"I think we've definitely led the industry in that," he told Sky News.

"But there's always more work to do. And the question is, how do you do this at massive scale? And that's where using more technologies like machine learning can really help.

"But I think Twitter has a pretty great record in this regard.

"But we're always looking to make sure we have the right partnership with the Government to understand what the needs are and to really push."

In its latest transparency report, Twitter said it had removed nearly 377,000 accounts promoting terrorism in the second half of 2016.

Mr Dorsey told Sky News that machine learning could also help curb abuse on the social network, and said it was trying to do more to protect users.

Image: Khalid Masood sent an encrypted message via Whatsapp minutes before his assault

"We can certainly give more controls to people, to make sure that the right things are being amplified. And we're giving people controls to report any sort of targeted harassment or abuse."

Mr Dorsey founded Square in May 2010, four years after co-founding Twitter.

On the decision to launch in the UK, he told Sky News: "The UK has always been a phenomenal market. It's full of entrepreneurs - over five million small businesses - and I think less than half accept credit cards.

"It's really making sure that we were ready for this market.

"A lot of what we have to do is work with banks, work with regulators, make sure that as we bring on more merchants, they trust that we're doing that in the right way.

"We wanted to make sure that we got everything right and understood the model in the US, and then look for the next biggest markets going down the line."