WhatsApp users in the UK may have to stop using the app soon. Because Meta, the owner of the application, said that he would prefer WhatsApp to be banned in the UK if the government enforces end-to-end encryption.
The Online Security Act, which is being evaluated by the government, amounts to an effective ban on end-to-end encryption, according to many. Meta’s head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, says that WhatsApp would rather be banned from the country than crack end-to-end encryption.
In a statement reported by The Guardian, Cathcart said the company “sees no liberal democracy” doing what the UK thinks with the bill: “It’s an extraordinary thing to think about. There is no way to change that in one place in the world. And that is the reality of developing a safe product. For example, we were blocked in Iran recently. But we’ve never seen a liberal democracy do that. The truth is, our users around the world want security. Ninety-eight percent of our users are outside the UK. They don’t want us to lower the security of the product, and it would very simply be an odd choice if we chose to lower the security of the product in a way that would affect 98% of users.”
WhatsApp isn’t the only messaging service to defy the bill, either. Signal said it would shut down the service in the country if it had to crack its end-to-end encryption to comply with the law if it went into effect.
The bill receives support from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). “The Online Security Act does not represent a ban on end-to-end encryption,” the UK government says.
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