BRITS are on the brink of losing access to WhatsApp amid a row with the UK government.
WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app in the UK, uses end-to-end-encryption (E2EE) – which is being reformed under a new set of laws.
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End-to-end encryption is a security feature that scrambles messages, so even the company running the service cannot view the contents.
Under the Online Safety Bill, the government is looking to give tech companies oversight of encrypted messages.
But WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart has said he would rather accept being blocked in the UK than weaken the apps’ security.
“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,” he told BBC News.
“We’ve recently been blocked in Iran, for example. We’ve never seen a liberal democracy do that.”
Despite Cathcart being concerned that a change in UK laws could encourage other countries to do the same, he and others in the tech sphere have refused to budge on their position.
“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,” he continued.
“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.”
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The move would cause quite the stir, with WhatsApp being used by approximately one in seven people in the UK.
WhatsApp isn’t the only app that has threatened to exit the UK if the rule comes into force.
The president of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, has previously told BBC News it “would absolutely, 100% walk” and stop providing services in the UK if required by the bill to weaken the privacy of its encrypted messaging system.
Whittaker has also tweeted she was looking forward to working with Cathcart and others to “push back” against the policy.
The government proposed the law in a bid to tackle child abuse material online.
“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.
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