WhatsApp, Signal, and platforms such as Wire and Viber have written an open letter to the British government. In the letter, the participants appeal that the government reevaluates the Online Safety Bill. For those who don't know, if this bill passes, it would let the regulators demand the platforms start monitoring users so they can identify any incidents related to child abuse.

WhatsApp, Signal, and Proton could halt their end-to-end services in the U.K. and pull out of markets if the Online Safety Bill passes

While this bill certainly looks like it will bring good, there is an issue with the implementation. If passed, the UK government could force WhatsApp and other services to bring in content moderation policies, and these policies could end up circumventing end-to-end encryption for all the users who are using the platform. Client-side scanning is one of the ways that could be enforced.

You can read an excerpt of the letter here:

Around the world, businesses, individuals and governments face persistent threats from online fraud, scams and data theft. Malicious actors and hostile states routinely challenge the security of our critical infrastructure. End-to-end encryption is one of the strongest possible defenses against these threats, and as vital institutions become ever more dependent on internet technologies to conduct core operations, the stakes have never been higher.

As currently drafted, the Bill could break end-to-end encryption,opening the door to routine, general and indiscriminate surveillance of personal messages of friends, family members, employees, executives, journalists, human rights activists and even politicians themselves, which would fundamentally undermine everyone’s ability to communicate securely.

The Bill provides no explicit protection for encryption, and if implemented as written, could empower OFCOM to try to force the proactive scanning of private messages on end-to-end encrypted communication services - nullifying the purpose of end-to-end encryption as a result and compromising the privacy of all users.

In short, the Bill poses an unprecedented threat to the privacy, safety and security of every UK citizen and the people with whom they communicate around the world, while emboldening hostile governments who may seek to draft copy-cat laws.

While the bill certainly looks like something that could help curb child abuse-related issues that are awry in the U.K, imposing the bill would also result in end-to-end encryption being broken, and that would result in a world of issues not just for the services but for the users as well. Sadly, if the bill does pass, WhatsApp, Signal, and Proton will halt their services in the U.K. and will pull out of the market.

At the moment, we cannot say what the future holds, but the Online Safety Bill is said to return to Parliament this summer. We will keep you posted as there are more developments regarding this bill.