An encryption exodus looms over UK’s Online Safety Bill – By Carly Page (Techcrunch) / June 27, 2023
The backlash against the encryption-busting Online Safety Bill continues to grow, suggesting the United Kingdom could soon face a looming exodus of secure messaging apps.
First drafted in May 2021, the Online Safety Bill would allow the U.K. government to compel backdoor access to any end-to-end encryption system. While the government claims the complex legislation would make the internet safer by requiring social media giants to remove illegal and harmful content online, such as revenge porn and hate speech, the bill has been met with widespread criticism from tech giants, security experts and privacy advocates.
The criticism largely centers around an amendment to the bill that would allow Ofcom, the U.K.’s communications regulator, to require that tech giants scan for child sex abuse material (CSAM) in end-to-end encrypted messages. One more privacy-minded way of doing this is through the use of client-side scanning, where images are inspected on a user’s device before being encrypted.
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