WhatsApp Will Not Comply With British Regulations

Uploaded on 2023-03-20 in TECHNOLOGY-Key Areas-Social Media, FREE TO VIEW, BUSINESS-Services-Law

Britain’s proposed Online Safety Bill requires messaging companies to remove end-to-end encryption to scan messages for child sex abuse material and is reaching the final stages of the legislative process. Now, WhatsApp (owned by Meta) says that it would refuse to remove its end-to-end encryption if it’s ordered to comply with the new regulations.

End-to-end encryption ensures that only the user and the person they are communicating with can read or listen to what is sent, and nobody in between, not even Meta's Facebook, can gain access to this content. However, the government, and some child-protection charities, argue that such encryption hinders efforts to combat the growing problem of online child abuse.

Both WhatsApp and Signal are taking a stand against the British government's attempts to weaken the encryption of services like theirs. It's said that the government's aim is to help weed out child abuse material that is sent via the services, but it would also make them less private for everyone else at the same time.

The head of WhatsApp at Meta, Will Cathcart, has said the company would prefer leave the UK than to be blocked with the UK Online Safety Bill that would undermine its encrypted-messaging system.

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging platform in the UK, used by more than seven in 10 adults who are online, according to communication regulator, Ofcom. However, the UK government’s Online Safety Bill contains a clause that requires technology companies providing end-to-end encrypted messaging to scan for child sex abuse material, which would require them to use client-side scanning and check the contents of messages before they were encrypted. This would require WhatsApp to remove end-to-end encryption from its product.

Signal has also said it could stop providing services in the UK if the bill required it to scan messages and its President, Meredith Whittaker, said that the company would be pushing back in an attempt to protect its own encryption from governmental meddling.

If WhatsApp refused to comply, it would either have to pull out of the UK market or have its parent company Meta face fines of up to 4% of its annual turnover.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) says research shows grooming and child-abuse-image crimes recorded in the UK have significantly increased. The NSPCC believes that encryption doesn't necessarily mean getting in the way of privacy, however.

The charity's Richard Collard added that "experts have demonstrated that it's possible to tackle child-abuse material and grooming in end-to-end encrypted environments. "The government, for its part, says that its Online Safety Bill "does not represent a ban on end-to-end encryption." Others have argued that the bill could open the door to mass surveillance of UK citizens.

Parliament: BBC: Computer World: WION: Proactive Investors: Macruomors: Pocket-Lint:

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