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WhatsApp, Signal and other messaging services have opposed to the government Online Safety Bill (OSB).
They are concerned that the bill could undermine end-to-end encryption – which means the message can only be read on the sender and the recipient’s app and nowhere else.
BBC reports that ministers want the regulator to be able to ask the platforms to monitor users, to root out child abuse images.
The government says it is possible to have both privacy and child safety.
“We support strong encryption,” a government official said, “but this cannot come at the cost of public safety.
“Tech companies have a moral duty to ensure they are not blinding themselves and law enforcement to the unprecedented levels of child sexual abuse on their platforms.
“The Online Safety Bill in no way represents a ban on end-to-end encryption, nor will it require services to weaken encryption.”
Tech companies have a moral duty to ensure they are not blinding themselves and law enforcement to the unprecedented levels of child sexual abuse on their platforms.
“The Online Safety Bill in no way represents a ban on end-to-end encryption, nor will it require services to weaken encryption.”
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) provides the most robust level of security because nobody other than the sender and intended recipient can read the message information.
Even the operator of the app cannot unscramble messages as they pass across its systems – they can be decrypted only by the people in the chat.
In an open letter published on Tuesday, the operators of encrypted messaging apps warn: “Weakening encryption, undermining privacy and introducing the mass surveillance of people’s private communications is not the way forward.”
In its current form, the OSB opens the door to “routine, general and indiscriminate surveillance” of personal messages, the letter says.
The bill risks “emboldening hostile governments who may seek to draft copycat laws”.
And while the UK government say technological ways can be found to scan messages without undermining the privacy of E2EE “the truth is that this is not possible”.
Mr Hodgson, of UK company Element, called the proposals a “spectacular violation of privacy… equivalent to putting a CCTV camera in everyone’s bedroom.”
Mr Cathcart has told BBC News WhatsApp would rather be blocked in the UK than weaken the privacy of encrypted messaging.