WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Meta, could face a ban in the UK due to the upcoming Online Safety Bill. According to the head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, the bill could force the app to weaken the end-to-end encryption that currently secures messages on the service. This is a significant concern for technology companies and security experts. Who argue that end-to-end encryption is necessary to protect messages from hacking and other threats. However, officials, including those in the UK, have argued that encryption should be weakened. To enable messages to be scanned for illegal content.
If the UK government were to demand that WhatsApp weaken its encryption, Mr Cathcart confirmed that the company would refuse, leaving open the possibility that the app would be banned entirely within the country. This has brought criticism from not only WhatsApp but also rival secure messaging app Signal. Which has said that it would absolutely, 100% leave the UK if it received such a request.
End-to-end encryption secures messages by ensuring that only those sending and receiving them can read them. And even the services themselves do not have access. It is necessary to protect messages from hacking and other threats. But officials have argued that it should be weakened so that messages can be scanned for illegal content.
WhatsApp may be banned in the UK
The Online Safety Bill, introduced by Boris Johnson, is currently on its way through parliament. It allows the government or regulator Ofcom to demand that apps scan messages for terrorist or child sexual abuse material. Which would not be possible without weakening the encryption that currently protects all messages.
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Mr Cathcart expressed shock that the company would be forced into such a policy in the UK. But he said that the upcoming legislation does not give proper confidence that the app would not be forced into weakening its own privacy. “It’s a remarkable thing to think about,” he said. “The experience we’ve faced all around the world is that’s only happened in governments that were trying to crack down on their citizens’ ability to communicate freely.”
Will WhatsApp weaken its encryption?
If the UK government were to push for such changes, it would “shape what other countries all around the world ask for on different topics, on different issues”, he said. “When a liberal democracy says, ‘Is it OK to scan everyone’s private communication for illegal content?’, that encourages countries around the world that have very different definitions of illegal content to propose the same thing”.
The upcoming Online Safety Bill includes legal “grey areas” that could make it easier for regulators or government to demand apps weaken encryption, Mr Cathcart said. WhatsApp stressed that it offers the same app globally. And that there is no way for it to comply with weakening encryption in the UK without doing the same. It would not do that even if asked by the UK government, Mr Cathcart said.
He declined to speculate on how any possible ban would actually happen, but he pointed to countries such as Iran where the government has blocked the app. However, users are still able to access it through virtual private networks. And other technology that allows people to circumvent restrictions.
So, to avoid such a situation, Mr Cathcart urged the UK government to add wording to the bill. So that it would make clear private messaging is different from other social networks, and that encryption should be protected. He said that the government has made public statements about the importance of such security. But that it should be explicitly written within that legislation. “I don’t know that people want to live in a world where to communicate to someone has to be illegal”. “I think a lot of people will. But I still think that’s a bad thing” he said.
