WhatsApp: It will not Lower Security for Any Government

Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, said WhatsApp will not lower the security of its messenger services. He said if asked by the government to weaken the security encryption, it will be very foolish to accept.

The governments of many countries plan to detect child sexual abuse images, including the possible scanning of private messages. The NSPCC has also criticized the position of WhatsApp, saying that direct messaging is the frontline of child sexual abuse.

The government of the United States says technology companies need to tackle the material of child sexual-abuse online, and its proposal are part of the Online Safety Bill. A spokesperson of the US government said they should ignore the risk that end-to-end encryption can blind them to the child content, and will also hamper the efforts to catch the perpetrators.

Spokesperson also said they will continue to with the technology industry to support the development of innovative technologies that will protect public safety without compromising the privacy.

The end-to-end encryption also provides the most robust level of security, and because of the design, which is the only intended recipient holds the key to decrypt the message, which has been essential for the private communication. This end-to-end encryption technology underpins the online message exchanges on apps including Signal and WhatsApp, with Telegram and Facebook messenger.

Will Cathcart said the scanning in client-side cannot work in practice. He added that due to millions of people use WhatsApp for communication across the world, it needs to maintain the same standards of privacy across each and every country.