WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart refused to comply with the requirements of the UK's new cyber security law, which aims to ban user peer-to-peer encryption in chat apps, including WhatsApp. During a visit to the UK to meet with lawmakers to discuss the new legislation, Cathcart said the law was the most serious currently being discussed in the Western world, according to The Guardian.
Cathcart stressed that the company will not respond to government requests to decrypt, stressing that users of the application around the world want security and privacy. He said that it is unreasonable to lower the application's security level in a way that affects these users, adding that 98% of the application's users are outside the United Kingdom, indicating the possibility of the company's exit from the UK market if the law is not applicable. attached.
End-to-end encryption is the most secure technology for protecting user privacy, since the technology used in messaging applications does not prevent anyone but the interlocutors themselves from decrypting messages. WhatsApp cannot read messages sent through its service, which makes it difficult to meet the legal requirements for sending messages to official authorities, as new legislation gives the UK government the power to request decryption.
By law, the UK government or telecom regulator may require WhatsApp to enforce a content modification policy that cannot be met without decryption. If the company refuses to do so, it can be fined up to 4% of the annual gross income of the meta that owns the app, unless it exits the UK market entirely.
At the same time, controversy over the use of end-to-end encryption has intensified as governments and law enforcement agencies demand access to encrypted communications to combat illegal activities such as terrorism and child sexual abuse. However, privacy advocates argue that weakening encryption would threaten individuals' right to privacy and make it easier for criminals to access victims' sensitive information.
The new law, designed to crack down on illegal activities on social media platforms, has been criticized for its potential impact on individuals' right to privacy. The law requires social media companies to remove illegal content within a certain period of time and to take measures to prevent the distribution of such content on their platforms.
The UK government said the new laws aim to protect children from harmful content online and improve users' digital safety.
Since its inception, end-to-end encryption has caught the attention of governments around the world because it prevents them from seeing the messages exchanged by users. As a result, some countries including China, North Korea and Iran have banned their citizens from accessing WhatsApp and other apps that use the same encryption technology, but this is the first time the issue has been raised in the West.