A UK online security bill could ban end-to-end encryption, used by WhatsApp. The messaging group Meta threatens, in return, to leave the country.
Could our neighbors in the UK be deprived of WhatsApp? In any case, this is what the instant messaging application threatens to do. This is a direct consequence of the bill ” Online Safety Bill on online security, one of the measures of which would be to detect illegal content, child pornography in particular, exchanged with the application. Implementing such a system would be tantamount to breaking end-to-end encryption, which could no longer fulfill its initial promise of messages seen only by senders and recipients.
Touching encryption, the red line that WhatsApp does not want to cross
The bill does not explain how the analysis and detection of illegal messages and content would be carried out, but cybersecurity specialists are unanimous in asserting that this would make end-to-end encryption of exchanges impossible. Today, encryption is applied by default to all conversations, unless a message is flagged as inappropriate, which breaks this protection.
This wouldn’t bother WhatsApp either, since services like Signal or Telegram (and all the other messengers that follow the end-to-end encryption) use this system to guarantee the confidentiality of messages.
Except that WhatsApp, with its omnipotence and its place as the world leader in instant messaging (with 2 billion active monthly users), does not hear it that way. The subsidiary of the Meta group considers end-to-end encryption as a red line that should not be crossed.
WhatsApp is not ready to cut into security
The boss of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, has already promised that he does not intend to modify or degrade the current service. ” The reality is that our users around the world want security “, he reacted. ” They don’t want us to reduce product security, and it would be an odd choice for us to reduce it in a way that would affect 98% of our users. “.
Officially, the British government already has the power to request the removal of encryption, with a law passed in 2016. Except that by WhatsApp’s own admission, no legal request has ever reached their desk. The bill originally from former Prime Minister Boris Johnson currently being discussed across the Channel could strengthen this power and push the messaging system to abdicate.
If the British power went to the end of its idea, WhatsApp could only apply content moderation policies. To refuse to do so, so as not to threaten its model around end-to-end encryption, would then expose it to a fine of up to 4% of its annual turnover. WhatsApp, which recalled being blocked in Iran, raises the hypothesis of stopping all activity in the United Kingdom if the government were to force its hand. The battle of ideas is on.
Source : The Guardian
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