WhatsApp could shut down in the UK, if the the government’s controversial new Online Safety Bill passes, recent reports show. Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp at Meta, has suggested he’d rather see the smartphone app blocked in the UK than have its security weakened.
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Speaking in The Telegraph, Cathcart said that if the new bill forces his company to removeend-to-end encryption, it’s possible they would have no alternative but to shut down the app in this country.
End-to-end encryption
Encryption is key to the privacy of WhatsApp’s users as it guarantees only the sender and receiver can read the contents of a message. However, the bill includes provisions which would enable law enforcement to access encrypted messages on WhatsApp and similar services.
Cathart stated, as per Indy100:
The Bill provides for technology notices requiring communication providers to take away end-to-end encryption - to break it. The hard reality is we offer a global product. It would be a very hard decision for us to make a change where 100 per cent of our users lower their security.
Online Safety Bill
The controversial part of the bill requires companies to assist in the prevention of the spread of child abuse and terrorist material by scanning messages. The bill gives the Office of Communications (Ofcom) the power to force companies to use its ‘highly accurate technology to scan public and private channels for child sexual abuse material’, as per the Evening Standard.
A government spokesperson said:
We support strong encryption but it cannot come at the expense of protecting children from exploitation. End-to-end encryption cannot be allowed to hamper efforts to catch perpetrators of the most serious crimes.
However, technology experts have been against attempts to weaken encryption for a long time, believing there should be no such thing as a back door that only law enforcement can open.
WhatsApp is the most popular mobile messenger app in the world with more than 2 billion users, around 40 million of which are in the UK. The popularity of the app puts the company in a strong position and so who will win the battle between government and big tech is yet to be seen.
Sources used:
- The Telegraph 'WhatsApp raises threat of UK shutdown in encryption row'
- The Evening Standard 'WhatsApp threatens a UK shutdown if anti-encryption laws pass'
- Indy100 'WhatsApp is close to disappearing in the UK'
