WhatsApp, Signal, and other messaging apps have urged the government to rethink the Online Safety Bill (OSB). They are concerned that the bill could undermine end-to-end encryption – which means the message can only be read on the sender and the recipient’s app and nowhere else.
The bill was introduced last year and includes various measures to amp up online safety, could request that platforms monitor users to root out child abuse images.
Ministers want the regulator to be able to ask the platforms to monitor users, to root out child abuse images. The government says it is possible to have both privacy and child safety. A government official stated that strong encryption is supported. Yet, it cannot come at the cost of public safety.
In an open letter published on Tuesday, the operators of encrypted messaging apps warn: “Weakening encryption, undermining privacy, and introducing the mass surveillance of people’s private communications is not the way forward.
In its current form, the OSB opens the door to “routine, general and indiscriminate surveillance” of personal messages, the letter said.
Richard Collard, of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), said, with the victims, mostly girls, were targeted at an increasingly young age.
“The front line of this fight to keep our children safe is private messaging – and it would be inconceivable for regulators and law enforcement to suddenly go into retreat at the behest of some of the world’s biggest companies,” he said.
On the other hand, experts have demonstrated that it’s possible to tackle child abuse material and grooming in end-to-end encrypted environments. Accordingly, the argument children’s fundamental right to safety online could be achieved only at the expense of adult privacy is considered fallacious.
