Signal Would ‘Walk’ From UK if Online Safety Bill Undermined Encryption

The encrypted-messaging app Signal has said it would stop providing services in the UK if a new law undermined encryption.

If forced to weaken the privacy of its messaging system under the Online Safety Bill, the organisation “would absolutely, 100% walk” Signal president Meredith Whittaker told the BBC.
The government said its proposal was not “a ban on end-to-end encryption”.

The bill, introduced by Boris Johnson, is currently going through Parliament.

Critics say companies could be required by Ofcom to scan messages on encrypted apps for child sexual abuse material or terrorism content under the new law.

This has worried firms whose business is enabling private, secure communication.

Element, a UK company whose customers include the Ministry of Defence, told the BBC the plan would cost it clients.

Previously, WhatsApp has told the BBC it would refuse to lower security for any government.
‘Magical thinking’

The government, and prominent child protection charities have long argued that encryption hinders efforts to combat online child abuse – which they say is a growing problem.

“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 in a statement.

It added “The Online Safety Bill does not represent a ban on end-to-end encryption but makes clear that technological changes should not be implemented in a way that diminishes public safety – especially the safety of children online.

“It is not a choice between privacy or child safety – we can and we must have both.”

Child protection charity the NSPCC said in reaction to Signal’s announcement: “Tech companies should be required to disrupt the abuse that is occurring at record levels on their platforms, including in private messaging and end-to-end encrypted environments.”

But the digital rights campaigners the Open Rights Group said it highlighted how the bill threatened to “undermine our right to communicate securely and privately”.

But Ms Whittaker told the BBC it was “magical thinking” to believe we can have privacy “but only for the good guys”.

She added: “Encryption is either protecting everyone or it is broken for everyone.”
She said the Online Safety Bill “embodied” a variant of this magical thinking.

Signal has had over 100 million app downloads on the Google store alone.

It uses end-to-end encryption, a system where messages are scrambled so that even the company operating the service cannot read them.

Operated by a Californian based not-for-profit organisation, the app’s users include journalists, activists and politicians.

The post Signal Would ‘Walk’ From UK if Online Safety Bill Undermined Encryption was originally published on BBC.