Silicon Valley appears open to helping US spy agencies after terrorism summit

Obama administration acknowledges 'complicated first amendment issues' after top counter-terrorism officials traveled to California to woo technology executives from companies including Apple, Facebook and Twitter

Technology giants appeared to be open to helping the US government combat Islamic State during an extraordinary closed-door summit on Friday that brought together America's most senior counter-terrorism officials with some of Silicon Valley's most powerful executives.

The remarkable rendezvous between Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and others and a delegation from the White House revealed a willingness on the part of tech firms to work with the government, and indicated that the Obama administration appears to have concluded it can't combat terrorists online on its own.