The rallying cry to block new laws that could undermine end-to-end encryption have grown louder today, as free speech groups urge the government to rethink online safety.
In a fresh call this morning, the Global Encryption Coalition, which includes anonymity network Tor and Open Rights Group, said the online safety bill should be protecting message encryption by “mandating more security, not less”.
End-to-end encryption is a layer of security that means no one, including Google and third parties, can read your messages.
However, the main argument against end-to-end encryption is that it limits law enforcements’ ability to access communication, and leaves people vulnerable to child abuse and extremism. Early forms of the bill have therefore called for it to be limited.
Last month, the chief of Meta-owned Whatsapp Will Cathcart aired similar concerns in an interview with the FT.
“We’re in an era on the internet where cyber attacks are going way up, especially from hostile nation states. And so the idea that now is a moment to weaken security, I just think it’s very, very wrong,” Cathcart said.
The boss of the world’s most-used messaging app said there were other ways of protecting children on apps rather than threatening encryption and explained that any move to undermine security could endanger the government’s own communications security in the long run.
He added that any changes in the UK could create a troubling precedent for other governments “where liberal democracy is not as strong”.
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