The proposed UK Online Safety Bill legislation has been criticized for potentially undermining end-to-end encryption. Intended to protect adults and children online, critics have called out the bill for allowing the UK government and regulator Office of Communications (OFCOM) to abuse its power online.
While many agree that social media companies should be held accountable for their users’ online safety, they disagree that they should do so in the manner this bill suggests. Particularly the clause that dictates messaging services offering end-to-end encryption should scan messages for child abuse material.
Tech companies and online safety advocates aren’t happy
Critics of the bill perceive it as a way to effectively ban end-to-end encryption in the UK. Rashik Parmar, chief executive of BCS, the UK’s chartered institute for IT, said that the proposal could break the principle of end-to-end encryption with a “magical backdoor” that both the government and bad actors could access, compromising online privacy for everyone.
An open letter signed by tech companies like WhatsApp, Viber, and Signal, addressed to “anyone who cares about safety and privacy on the internet,” raises concerns about the potential negative impact the bill could have on everyone’s online privacy and safety.
The letter ends with a stark warning:
“Global providers of end-to-end encrypted products and services cannot weaken the security of their products and services to suit individual governments. There cannot be a “British internet,” or a version of end-to-end encryption that is specific to the UK.
The UK Government must urgently rethink the Bill, revising it to encourage companies to offer more privacy and security to its residents, not less. Weakening encryption, undermining privacy, and introducing the mass surveillance of people’s private communications is not the way forward.”
Not the first time
This isn’t the first time the UK government has proposed such legislation for online safety. According to The Register, former Prime Minister David Cameron tried banning messaging apps featuring end-to-end encryption in 2015. Former Prime Minister Theresa May called for a ban again a few years later in 2018.
The proposing politicians don’t perceive it as a way to ban end-to-end encryption outright. A UK government official told BBC that the law would not weaken encryption, saying, “We support strong encryption, but this cannot come at the cost of public safety.” As anyone who knows anything about end-to-end encryption knows, this statement ignores the fact that you cannot have strong encryption when the companies providing it are monitoring everyone’s messages.
If the bill passes and becomes enshrined in law, WhatsApp and Signal have said they will cease services in the UK.