UK Encrypted Messaging Fears Future Control of Online Content
Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 6:10 am
First proposed in May 2021, the British bill to regulate the obligations of platforms is nearing the end of its drafting phase : approved by the House of Commons, the text must now be validated by the House of Lords before being promulgated. This text includes several provisions aimed at better regulating the obligations of online services and social networks with regard to controlling minors' access to pornography, but above all new obligations on the removal of illegal content.
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The text aims in particular to force the operators of these overseas chinese in australia data services to automatically detect illegal content posted online on their platforms. If it were to come into force as it stands, it would force the messaging services WhatsApp and Signal to review their technology or leave the United Kingdom. WhatsApp and Signal rely on the technique of so-called "end-to-end" encryption, thanks to which a message is only accessible to its sender and recipient, and completely indecipherable to anyone else, including the platforms themselves.
Fears about encryption
In a blog post published on Thursday, March 9 , Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, summed up the messaging app’s main concerns. “As written, the provisions of the Online Safety Bill are set to eviscerate privacy while opening up new vectors of exploitation that threaten the safety of everyone in the UK. (…) We oppose the bill in its current form and believe that key provisions need to be fundamentally reconsidered.”
Signal's president compares the situation, if the British law were enacted, to that of Iran, where the encrypted messaging application is banned: Signal continues to be offered there but clandestinely, using a set of technical measures aimed at evading the censorship tools deployed by the government.
WhatsApp has joined the criticism through its CEO Will Cathcart. In the British press , the executive expressed concern about the conflict between the bill and WhatsApp's desire to offer the same application and the same encryption guarantees in all the markets where it is present. Mr. Cathcart does not rule out the possibility that the application could be withdrawn from the British market if the British government required WhatsApp to weaken its encryption tool to comply with the text of the law. He also points out that in Iran, where WhatsApp is officially blocked, the messaging service remains accessible by indirect means.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers UK family fights internet giants after daughter dies
The text aims in particular to force the operators of these overseas chinese in australia data services to automatically detect illegal content posted online on their platforms. If it were to come into force as it stands, it would force the messaging services WhatsApp and Signal to review their technology or leave the United Kingdom. WhatsApp and Signal rely on the technique of so-called "end-to-end" encryption, thanks to which a message is only accessible to its sender and recipient, and completely indecipherable to anyone else, including the platforms themselves.
Fears about encryption
In a blog post published on Thursday, March 9 , Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, summed up the messaging app’s main concerns. “As written, the provisions of the Online Safety Bill are set to eviscerate privacy while opening up new vectors of exploitation that threaten the safety of everyone in the UK. (…) We oppose the bill in its current form and believe that key provisions need to be fundamentally reconsidered.”
Signal's president compares the situation, if the British law were enacted, to that of Iran, where the encrypted messaging application is banned: Signal continues to be offered there but clandestinely, using a set of technical measures aimed at evading the censorship tools deployed by the government.
WhatsApp has joined the criticism through its CEO Will Cathcart. In the British press , the executive expressed concern about the conflict between the bill and WhatsApp's desire to offer the same application and the same encryption guarantees in all the markets where it is present. Mr. Cathcart does not rule out the possibility that the application could be withdrawn from the British market if the British government required WhatsApp to weaken its encryption tool to comply with the text of the law. He also points out that in Iran, where WhatsApp is officially blocked, the messaging service remains accessible by indirect means.