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Fnord666 writes:

The UK Is Trying to Stop Facebook's End-to-End Encryption

The UK is planning a new attack on end-to-end encryption, with the Home Office set to spearhead efforts designed to discourage Facebook from further rolling out the technology to its messaging apps.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is planning to deliver a keynote speech at a child protection charity's event focused on exposing the perceived ills of end-to-end encryption and asking for stricter regulation of the technology. At the same time a new report will say that technology companies need to do more to protect children online.

[...] The Home Office's move comes as Facebook plans to roll out end-to-end encryption across all its messaging platforms—including Messenger and Instagram—which has sparked a fierce debate in the UK and elsewhere over the supposed risks the technology poses to children.

[...] An early draft of the report, seen by WIRED, says that increased usage of end-to-end encryption would protect adults' privacy at the expense of children's safety, and that any strategy adopted by technology companies to mitigate the effect of end-to-end encryption will "almost certainly be less effective than the current ability to scan for harmful content."

The report also suggests that the government devise regulation "expressly targeting encryption", in order to prevent technology companies from "engineer[ing] away" their ability to police illegal communications.[...]

[...] Since Facebook's announcement on the extension of end-to-end encryption in 2019, Patel has grown increasingly impatient and vocal about the dangers of the technology—publicly calling on Facebook to "halt plans for end-to-end encryption", and bringing up the subject in meetings with her US counterparts and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance of English-speaking countries.

[...] Jim Killock, executive director at digital rights organization Open Rights Group, says he is "worried that the Home Office will be considering using a secret order (TCN) to force Facebook to limit or circumvent their encryption."

"Facebook would be gagged from saying anything," Killock adds. Although the action would be targeted to Facebook only, he thinks that such a move would set a precedent.

[...] Company executives have previously admitted that the increased rollout of end-to-end encryption will reduce the amount of child abuse reports it makes to industry monitoring groups.

"Its full rollout on our messaging services is a long-term project and we are building strong safety measures into our plans," the spokesperson added.

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