Encrypted messaging services have signed an open letter opposing the Online Safety Bill ahead of its final reading in the House of Lords.[1] The major concern relates to the Bill potentially undermining end-to-end encryption, the most robust level of security between the sender and recipient of a message.
Ministers want the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, to ask platforms to monitor users to root out child abuse images to increase child safety. The Bill would enable Ofcom to make companies scan messages in order to identify child sexual abuse material. However, the messaging service providers contend in the letter that this will allow “routine, general and indiscriminate surveillance” of personal messages. Some messaging providers are threatening to exit the market if the Bill is passed in its current form.
Signatories of the open letter are WhatsApp, Signal, Element, OPTF, Threema, Viber and Wire.