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The broken record: Why Barr's call against end-to-end encryption is nuts
US Attorney General William Barr is leading a charge to press Facebook and other Internet services to terminate end-to-end encryption efforts—this time in the name of fighting child pornography. Barr, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan, Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, and United Kingdom Secretary of State Priti Patel yesterday asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to hold off on plans to implement end-to-end encryption across all Facebook Messenger services "without including a means for lawful access to the content of communications to protect our citizens."
The open letter comes months after Barr said in a speech that "warrant-proof" cryptography is "extinguishing the ability of law enforcement to obtain evidence essential to detecting and investigating crimes" and allowing "criminals to operate with impunity, hiding their activities under an impenetrable cloak of secrecy." The new message echoes a joint communiqué issued by the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand (the "Five Eyes") from July, which stated:
...it is imperative that all sectors of the digital industry including Internet Service Providers, device manufacturers and others to continue to consider the impacts to the safety of children, including those who are at risk of exploitation, when developing their systems and services. In particular, encryption must not be allowed to conceal or facilitate the exploitation of children.
Facebook encryption threatens public safety, say ministers
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel and counterparts in the US and Australia have sent an open letter to Facebook calling on it to rethink its plans to encrypt all messages on its platforms. The policy threatens "lives and the safety of our children", they said. They said it could hamper international efforts to grant law enforcers faster access to private messages on social media, as agreed between the UK and US.
Facebook said "people have the right to have a private conversation online." The head of Facebook-owned WhatsApp Will Cathcart had previously posted on Hacker News: "End-to-end encryption protects that right for over a billion people every day."
Also at NYT.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mendax on Monday October 07 2019, @02:07AM (5 children)
Isn't "Think of the children!" always the cry of public safety officials when they want to do something that further infringes upon our civil liberties? Well, in this case they are right because the implementation of strong end-to-end encryption in things like Facebook Messenger are going to make it easier for pedophiles to exchange their vile wares. This is truly evil. However, there is a greater evil and that is governments themselves. China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt are a few examples of repressive regimes the citizens of which need to have strong end-to-end encryption. The citizens of the United States also need this security to protect itself from an increasingly dictatorial regime which is attempting to erode our civil liberties.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Monday October 07 2019, @02:21AM
They think so much of the children that they are thinking and acting childish themselves.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Monday October 07 2019, @02:27AM (3 children)
This particular call to "Think of the children!" feels different. They have been attacking encryption for years to almost no avail, and now they are just playing the pedo card with no subtlety whatsoever.
Luckily, we have Zuck to thank for our freedoms.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Monday October 07 2019, @02:41AM (1 child)
The irony is strong with this one.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday October 07 2019, @03:19AM
It would be funny, nay, hilarious even if it hasn't been this sad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Monday October 07 2019, @10:55PM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.