A year after the Home Secretary wrote an open letter to
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg requesting the company
halts its end-to-end encryption plans unless they can
address child safety fears, the UK, alongside the
United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India
and Japan, have called on all tech companies to ensure
they do not blind themselves to illegal activity on
their platforms, including child abuse images.
Home Secretary said:
We owe it to all of our citizens, especially our
children, to ensure their safety by continuing to
unmask sexual predators and terrorists operating
online.
It is essential that tech companies do not turn a
blind eye to this problem and hamper their, as well
as law enforcement’s, ability to tackle these
sickening criminal acts.
Our countries urge all tech companies to work with us
to find a solution that puts the public’s safety
first.
The 7 signatories of the international statement have
made it clear that when end-to-end encryption is
applied with no access to content, it severely
undermines the ability of companies to take action
against illegal activity on their own platforms.
It also prevents law enforcement investigating and
prosecuting the most serious crimes being committed on
these services such as online child sexual abuse,
grooming and terrorist content.
This international intervention calls on tech companies
to ensure there is no reduction in user safety when
designing their encrypted services; to enable law
enforcement access to content where it is necessary and
proportionate; and work with governments to facilitate
this.
The UK and its international partners are clear that
they support strong encryption, but not where it is
applied in a way that precludes all legal access to
content, therefore putting the public at significant
risk of harm.
