- The UK government is planning on introducing the ‘Online Safety Bill’, which will scan the content of messages for CSAM (child sexual abuse material) and other illegal content.
- The ‘Online Safety Bill’ wants to bring the ability to scan end-to-end encryption messages for child abuse and other content.
- In this context, Apple is likely to withdraw iMessage and FaceTime in the UK if the bill passes.
The UK government is planning on introducing the ‘Online Safety Bill’, which will create regulations for messaging services and this includes Apple’s iMessage. This will scan the content of messages for CSAM (child sexual abuse material) and other illegal content. This bill also wants the ability to scan end-to-end encryption messages for child abuse and other content. In this context, Apple is likely to withdraw iMessage and FaceTime in the UK if the bill passes (via).
- Apple says that such laws would affect users’ security features, which will lead to the closure of Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime services in the UK.
- Besides Apple, giants like WhatsApp and Signal have opposed this proposal and implied that they might withdraw the services.
- Apple said that it would not make changes to its features/services just for one country.
- The new ‘Online Security Bill’ will be a serious and direct threat to data security and information privacy which would affect people outside the UK.
- Apple has requested the government to amend the bill to protect strong end-to-end encryption to benefit everyone.
The UK government, on the other hand, said that end-to-end encryption prevents authorises and the firm themselves from identifying any child abuse case. The govt earlier mentioned that tech companies have a moral duty to ensure that they are not blinding themselves and law enforcement from child abuse on their platform.
The Online Safety Bill is currently under an eight-week consultation period. Apple and other companies are hoping that the government will revise the bill owing to criticism. The reason for opposing is a clause in the bill that would allow communication regulators to require tech giants to install technology to scan for child abuse material in encrypted messaging apps and other services. The head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart back in March said that the company would be blocked in the UK rather than to weaken privacy.
