WhatsApp joins Signal in ‘encryption war’, risks business in the UK

WhatsApp head Will Cathcart has reportedly refused to undermine the messaging platform’s end-to-end encryption – a feature that the Meta-owned company has promoted innumerable times in the past – risking the company’s business in the UK. By taking this stand, it has joined the rival app Signal in essentially “pushing back” the UK’s demand of “lowering the security” of the messaging service.

As per a report by BBC, Cathcart said the company will rather be blocked in the UK than to weaken the privacy of encrypted messages under the Online Safety Bill, if asked by the government.

“Our users all around the world want security – 98% of our users are outside the UK, they do not want us to lower the security of the product. We’ve recently been blocked in Iran, for example. We’ve never seen a liberal democracy do that,” he said.

WhatsApp goes Singal’s way
The development comes weeks after Signal said it could stop providing services in the UK if the bill required it to scan messages. Signal president Meredith Whittaker noted that the company “will do everything we can to make sure people in the UK can continue to access Signal. Everything except break our privacy promises.”

Cathcart retweeted her tweet and agreed to “work together to push back.”

“We won’t lower the security of WhatsApp. We have never done that – and we have accepted being blocked in other parts of the world,” Cathcart said, fearing that the UK would set an example other nations might follow.

“When a liberal democracy says, ‘Is it OK to scan everyone’s private communication for illegal content?’ that emboldens countries around the world that have very different definitions of illegal content to propose the same thing,” Cathcart said.

“If companies installed software on to people’s phones and computers to scan the content of their communications against a list of illegal content, what happens when other countries show up and give a different list of illegal content?” he added.

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UK’s Online Safety Bill
The UK’s Online Safety Bill grants Office of Communications, or Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, the power to require private encrypted-messaging apps and other services to adopt “accredited technology” to identify and remove child-abuse material, BBC said.

The government has argued that encryption – which scrablems the content of messages so that it cannot be seen by the company itself – hinders efforts to combat online child abuse problem.

“It is important that technology companies make every effort to ensure that their platforms do not become a breeding ground for paedophiles,” the Home Office said.

The UK government also argued that it is possible to have both privacy and child safety.

However, the Signal president, while replying to a tweet exploring the use of “AI/ ML in monitoring private (encrypted) conversations for various sorts of crime,” said that “there’s no such thing as communications that are both ‘private’ and ‘monitored’.”

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WhatsApp head Will Cathcart has reportedly refused to undermine the messaging platform’s end-to-end encryption – a feature that the Meta-owned company has promoted innumerable times in the past – risking the company’s business in the UK. By taking this stand, it has joined the rival app Signal in essentially “pushing back” the UK’s demand of “lowering the security” of the messaging service.

As per a report by BBC, Cathcart said the company will rather be blocked in the UK than to weaken the privacy of encrypted messages under the Online Safety Bill, if asked by the government.

“Our users all around the world want security – 98% of our users are outside the UK, they do not want us to lower the security of the product. We’ve recently been blocked in Iran, for example. We’ve never seen a liberal democracy do that,” he said.

WhatsApp goes Singal’s way
The development comes weeks after Signal said it could stop providing services in the UK if the bill required it to scan messages. Signal president Meredith Whittaker noted that the company “will do everything we can to make sure people in the UK can continue to access Signal. Everything except break our privacy promises.”

Cathcart retweeted her tweet and agreed to “work together to push back.”

“We won’t lower the security of WhatsApp. We have never done that – and we have accepted being blocked in other parts of the world,” Cathcart said, fearing that the UK would set an example other nations might follow.

“When a liberal democracy says, ‘Is it OK to scan everyone’s private communication for illegal content?’ that emboldens countries around the world that have very different definitions of illegal content to propose the same thing,” Cathcart said.

“If companies installed software on to people’s phones and computers to scan the content of their communications against a list of illegal content, what happens when other countries show up and give a different list of illegal content?” he added.

Read Also

UK’s Online Safety Bill
The UK’s Online Safety Bill grants Office of Communications, or Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, the power to require private encrypted-messaging apps and other services to adopt “accredited technology” to identify and remove child-abuse material, BBC said.

The government has argued that encryption – which scrablems the content of messages so that it cannot be seen by the company itself – hinders efforts to combat online child abuse problem.

“It is important that technology companies make every effort to ensure that their platforms do not become a breeding ground for paedophiles,” the Home Office said.

The UK government also argued that it is possible to have both privacy and child safety.

However, the Signal president, while replying to a tweet exploring the use of “AI/ ML in monitoring private (encrypted) conversations for various sorts of crime,” said that “there’s no such thing as communications that are both ‘private’ and ‘monitored’.”

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