Priti Patel says major social media companies will stop being “blinded” by encryption

[ad_1]

Home Secretary Priti Patel said Congress to prevent Facebook, Snapchat, and other major social brands from “intentionally blinding” child abuse and other misconduct using encryption. I promised to amend the law that goes through.

write in Telegraph, Patel said: “Child sexual abuse is an unimaginable and evil crime. This online effort is a global issue and we need a global solution. We all need to play our part.”

She said there is a risk that big tech companies will use end-to-end encryption excuses to share messages and content and say they don’t know what’s going on under their noses. I did.

The online safety bill is currently passing Congress and has already caused a lot of controversy.

Last month, media law guru Gavin Millar QC wrote in a legal opinion about the index on censorship of the Freedom of Speech Campaign Group:

Patel said in a telegram: “We don’t want to censor anyone or limit freedom of speech, but we have to do more to fight these dirty, highly destructive crimes.”

“Technology companies are responsible for mitigating risk.”

However, she said that end-to-end encryption has reduced the ability of social media companies to detect child sexual abuse, saying: Source technology to mitigate risk, regardless of design choice. “

She said those who did not comply would be fined by Ofcom for up to £ 18 million, or 10 percent of the world’s annual sales.

Patel further stated in The Telegraph: “The UK Government sincerely supports the responsible use of cryptographic technology. They are widely used by banks to protect financial information and to be accessed by British citizens when making online banks and purchases. Prevents it from being abused. “

Last year, Apple said it plans to introduce a way to scan all iPhones for images of child abuse.

But Ross Anderson, a professor of security engineering at the University of Cambridge, said it was an “absolutely horrifying idea.” Financial Times: “That … will lead to distributed bulk monitoring of our phones and laptops.”

Chris Summers

follow

Chris Summers is a UK-based journalist with a particular interest in crime, police and law, covering stories from a wide range of countries.

[ad_2]