End of the festivities after the coronation of King Charles III, political life continues in the United Kingdom, starting with the regulation of digital life. A measure on end-to-end encryption in the online security bill could lead to the withdrawal of WhatsApp from the territory, reports The Guardian.
The UK government risks getting into a battle with WhatsApp, ministers have warned, as the bill is pending in the House of Lords. Four years of work, eight Secretaries of State and five Prime Ministers participated in the writing of the text of more than 250 pages.
This bill, which touches on all aspects of life online, aims to make end-to-end encryption less opaque. The goal would be to make it possible to detect illegal content within encrypted exchanges.
The text thus grants Ofcom (the telecommunications regulatory authority in the United Kingdom) the power to impose on social networks the use of new tools to fight terrorism or child pornography content, with fines of up to 10%. of worldwide billing for services that do not Default.
Except that, in the case of WhatsApp, which secures its users’ data with end-to-end encryption, it is technologically impossible to read users’ messages without breaking their initial promise: to protect the confidentiality of exchanges.
An “intentional ambiguity”
Last March, WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart stated that he had no intention of downgrading its current system and said he was shocked by this bill.
A spokesman for the Home Office told the guardian be “in favor of strong encryption, but this cannot be done at the expense of public safety.” And he tries to moderate: “The online security bill in no way represents a ban on end-to-end encryption, nor will it require services to weaken encryption.”
The spokesperson calls on platforms to use special technology or develop new technology to accurately identify child pornography or terrorist content.
Richard Allan, a House member who served as head of policy at Meta (Facebook’s parent company) until 2019, denounces “intentional ambiguity.”
According to him, the other possible scenario would be for the government to come clean and state that its intention is to limit end-to-end encryption to allow for “an orderly transition.”
However, according to politicalthe Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology wants to find a favorable result between the different parties and is currently in talks “with all those who want to discuss it.”
Source: BFM TV
