WhatsApp Will Not Comply With UK Bill to Disable End-to-End Encryption

WhatsApp's CEO warned that the messaging app will not comply with the online safety bill's end-to-end encryption ban, putting doubt on its existence in the UK.

Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp at Meta, has called the government's main internet regulation plan the most worrying piece of legislation presently being proposed in the western world. Cathcart is set to visit the UK and meet lawmakers to address the issue, according to The Guardian.

Purpose of Full Encryption

"The reality is, our users all around the world want security. Ninety-eight percent of our users are outside the UK. They do not want us to lower the security of the product, and just as a straightforward matter, it would be an odd choice for us to choose to lower the security of the product in a way that would affect those 98% of users," WhatsApp's Cathcart said.

To ensure that no one other than the intended receivers can read a text sent over a messaging service, the service often employs end-to-end encryption.

As WhatsApp cannot read its users' messages, it cannot cooperate with demands from law enforcement to hand over messages or to actively monitor conversations for child protection or anti-terror objectives.

The 'Grey Area'

CEO Cathcart claimed WhatsApp has never received a formal demand to remove encryption from the UK government, despite the fact that it has the right to do so according to the investigatory powers act of 2016. Notably, this "grey area" in the online safety bill is a reason for worry since it represents a gain in this kind of authority.

In the law passes, WhatsApp might be forced by the government or the UK's Office of Communications (Ofcom) to implement content moderation standards that it cannot meet without disabling end-to-end encryption. Unless it completely withdrew from the UK market, the firm might be fined up to 4% of its parent company Meta's annual sales if it failed to comply.

Despite its reputation as a messaging software, WhatsApp also provides social network-like capabilities via its Communities feature. This feature enables discussions with more than a thousand participants to be grouped, much like Slack and Discord do. These, too, are encrypted from end to end, but Cathcart felt that a huge community was unlikely to cause any problems.

A Call for Protection

Cathcart added that the UK law should include wording protecting end-to-end encryption for messaging services as the EU's digital markets act does.

He said it could make it abundantly evident that confidentiality and safety are crucial factors in the framework's design. It may state categorically that eliminating end-to-end encryption is not an option too. Lastly, he added that it is possible to add protections to the procedure so that this does not merely happen on its own.

It is anticipated that the only safety bill will be brought back to parliament this summer. If it passes, Ofcom will be granted expanded authority as the UK's internet regulator, allowing it to impose severe penalties for insufficient content filtering.