The coronavirus pandemic had everyone unexpectedly forget about their old lives. However, the debate between lawmakers and the tech industry has not stopped; they are still talking about end-to-end encryption. The governments led by the U.K, U.S, and Australia, want to battle the industry in order to get up “warrant-proof” encryption to law enforcement agencies. The industry stated that this would weaken security for all users around the globe.
WhatsApp is the most willing do to fight in courts for encryption, together with Facebook. There are 2 billion users relying on the platform to secure the messages. This is really important for you, too.
This debate has been around for a year now, and the current EARN-IT bill is still working its way through the U.S. legislative process. This one is the biggest test of survival for the end-to-end encryption in the way we all know it. It would force the best practices in the industry in order to prevent, reduce, and respond to illegal material. However, they cannot do that without breaking their own encryption.
After the platforms include backdoors, things will get more complicated. Lawmakers are clever. There is no mention of backdoors at all in the proposed legislation, and there is no saying about the need to break encryption. But if you send illegal or dangerous content, you will be held responsible. There are no options for some kind of a backdoor.
EFF talks about this as being a significant threat. They warn that “the privacy and security of all users will suffer if U.S. law enforcement achieves its dream of breaking encryption.”
Dominant tech platforms are organizing end-to-end encryption, arguing against weakening their security. Still, it is safe to say that Facebook is the one that leads the way against government moves. They are supported by Apple and another major, essential companies.
