Could WhatsApp be BANNED in Britain? Boss of popular messaging app slams UK law that proposes to make end-to-end encryption ILLEGAL
- The Online Safety Bill may require platforms to find and remove illegal content
- This could mean getting rid of end-to-end encryption, which secures messages
- But tech companies, like WhatsApp, have signed an open letter opposing the Bill
It’s the most popular messaging app in the UK, but WhatsApp could soon be banned if it refuses to comply with the new Online Safety Bill.
Under the Bill, tech companies will have a duty to find and remove illegal content being distributed through their social networking platforms.
But this could mean doing away with ‘end-to-end encryption’ – a security feature which scrambles messages to ensure that only the sender and recipient can read them.
Messaging services that use it, including WhatsApp, Signal, Viber and Element, have signed an open letter opposing the Online Safety Bill ahead of its final reading in the House of Lords.
‘The UK government is currently considering new legislation that opens the door to trying to force technology companies to break end-to-end encryption on private messaging services,’ it reads.
It’s the most popular messaging app in the UK, but WhatsApp could soon be banned if it refuses to comply with the new Online Safety Bill (file image)
An open letter opposing the Online Safety Bill has been signed by Will Cathcart (pictured), Meta’s head of WhatsApp, who said that he would would refuse to comply with it last month
‘The law could give an unelected official the power to weaken the privacy of billions of people around the world.
WHAT IS THE ONLINE SAFETY BILL?
Hailed as groundbreaking regulation of the tech sector, the aim of the Online Safety Bill is to introduce rules to social media and other user-generated content-based sites that compel them to remove illegal material from their platforms, with a particular emphasis on protecting children from harmful content.
In addition, the largest platforms – such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – will have to tackle named forms of ‘legal but harmful’ content, which could include issues such as promoting self-harm or eating disorders.
Under the bill, all platforms in scope will have a duty to find and remove illegal content, as well as have clear and robust terms and conditions in place.
Companies which breach these new rules face fines which could run into billions of pounds for the largest services or face being blocked.
All this would be overseen by communications regulator Ofcom, which is set to become the new regulator of the sector.
‘We don’t think any company, government or person should have the power to read your personal messages and we’ll continue to defend encryption technology.’
It claims that end-to-end encryption is ‘one of the strongest possible defenses’ against threats like online fraud, scams and data theft.
The signatories also claim that a ‘British internet’, which has its own version of weakened security, cannot be created by global apps to suit the UK government.
It is signed by Will Cathcart, Meta’s head of WhatsApp, who openly said that he would would refuse to comply with the Online Safety Bill last month.
Speaking ahead of a meeting with UK legislators to discuss the proposed law, Mr Cathcart described the Bill as the most concerning piece of legislation currently being discussed in the western world.
And in September, he openly said it was ‘puzzling’ that governments wanted to weaken security in this way, not bolster it.
WhatsApp cannot see messages sent via its own service, and so cannot comply with law enforcement requests to either hand them over for anti-terror purposes or to identify and remove child-abuse material, for example.
But the UK Government insists that it is possible to have both privacy and child safety.
The Online Safety Bill has been working its way through Parliament since being published in draft form in May 2021.
It is designed to help clamp down on online trolling and illegal forms of pornography by placing more responsibility on the platforms that internet users use.
As part of this, it allows the UK Government or regulator Ofcom to require companies to scan the contents of messages sent through their platforms for illegal content.
However, doing so would likely force them to weaken or do away with their own security measures.
WhatsApp, Signal and Element use end-to-end encryption on all messages, scrambling them so that they cannot be read by anyone other than the intended recipient (stock image)
WHAT IS END-TO-END ENCRYPTION?
End-to-end encryption ensures only the two participants of a chat can read messages, and no one in between – not even the company that owns the service.
End-to-end encryption is intended to prevent data being read or secretly modified when it is in transit between the two parties.
The cryptographic keys needed to access the service are automatically provided only to the two people in each conversation.
In decrypted form, messages are accessible by a third party – which makes them interceptable by governments for law enforcement reasons.
The Government insisted that the Bill ‘does not represent a ban on end-to-end encryption’ and that ‘we can and must have both’ privacy and child safety.
But it also does not explicitly state how it would be possible to monitor message content and continue their encryption, creating a ‘grey area’.
The open letter reads: ‘The Bill provides no explicit protection for encryption, and if implemented as written, could empower Ofcom to try to force the proactive scanning of private messages on end-to-end encrypted communication services – nullifying the purpose of end-to-end encryption as a result and compromising the privacy of all users.’
The chief executive of secure messaging app Element, Matt Hodgson, who also signed the letter, said his company’s ability to serve customers was under threat by the Bill.
‘The UK wants its own special access into end-to-end encrypted systems,’ he said.
‘Bad actors don’t play by the rules. Rogue nation states, terrorists, and criminals will target that access with every resource they have.
‘[The Online Safety Bill] is outright dangerous. It’s the cyber equivalent of Britain decommissioning its nuclear deterrent.’
The open letter does state that it ‘is not too late to ensure that the Bill aligns with the Government’s stated intention to protect end-to-end encryption’.
‘The UK Government must urgently rethink the Bill, revising it to encourage companies to offer more privacy and security to its residents, not less,’ it goes on.
Mr Cathcart previously urged the UK Government to add wording that differentiates private messaging apps from other social networks.
Instead of just making statements about the importance of encryption, he said they should put it in writing that encryption will be protected in the Online Safety Bill.
Mr Cathcart said: ‘It could make clear that privacy and security should be considered in the framework.
‘It could explicitly say that end-to-end encryption should not be taken away.
‘There can be more procedural safeguards so that this can’t just happen independently as a decision.’
Number of crimes involving child abuse images soars by 66% in five years
The number of crimes involving child abuse images reported to police has soared by two thirds in just five years, data shows.
Children’s charity the NSPCC said there were 30,925 recorded offences of the sharing or possession of indecent images of children in 2021-22 – a record high.
Just five years earlier the figure was 18,574, meaning numbers have surged by 66 per cent.
The charity, which obtained the UK-wide police data under freedom of information laws, said the 2021-22 figure included nearly 10,000 cases in which social media or a gaming site was used to distribute the illegal images.
Of those, Snapchat was recorded 4,293 times, Facebook 1,361, Instagram 1,363 and WhatsApp 547, it said.
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