Images from TextMagic
Over the last decade, E2E (End To End encryption) has been an increasingly important feature in text messages. However, this feature is initially opposed by the government and security agencies, and the calls against it have grown ever since.
With that said, authorities from various nations such as the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, The United States, India, Turkey, Japan and Brazil are up in arms with the development of this new technology. Even the Interpol has expressed its dissatisfaction over this matter.
This is what Suella Braverman, Home Secretary of the United Kingdom has to say:
"End-to-end encryption will be a huge boon to anyone who wants to hurt a child"
With the rise of online child grooming cases, the call for technical backdoors to be a built-in feature for accessing illegal materials in text messages, has been louder too. If police officers are restricted from content in everyone’s messages by Meta, they might miss out on proof to bring these criminals to justice.
According to NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children), most suspects scanned for child sexual abuse have led to many successful convictions. As a response, a Meta spokesperson stated that the company "developed safety measures that prevent, detect and allow us to take action against this heinous abuse." This issue is not exclusive to the UK, law enforcement bodies in other countries, including Malaysia could also experience similar problems.
While there is a growing demand for messages to be policed, both Whatsapp and Signal revealed that they would not compromise for a weakened security measure. Even if it means that they could be blocked out of the region.
What do you think is the right choice? Should end-to-end encryption be normalised? Or should our messages be monitored? Stay tuned for more similar news at Technave!
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