According to WhatsApp's CEO, Will Cathcart, the Online Safety Bill has the potential to outlaw Signal's privacy capabilities...
Will Cathcart, the CEO of WhatsApp, has joined Signal, an encrypted messaging service, in criticizing the UK's Online Safety Law. Signal's President, Meredith Whittaker, has referred to the legislation as "misguided" and assured users that the platform will always uphold its privacy commitments.
According to Whittaker, "Signal aims to furnish people all over the world with a way to communicate with true confidentiality."
If the UK enacts the present draft of the online safety law, Cathcart warned that WhatsApp, the most widely used messaging app globally, may be compelled to cease providing its services within the country.
During a press conference at the London offices of Meta Platforms on Thursday, Cathcart informed reporters that the Online Safety Bill could potentially render WhatsApp's privacy features illegal. He also stated that the company has no intentions of altering its encryption standards.
Cathcart was quoted by The Strait Times as saying, "It is a worldwide product, and it is not possible to modify it in just one part of the world. For instance, we were recently banned in Iran. We have never seen a liberal democracy do something like that."
The UK's Online Safety Bill is poised to undermine encryption and create a regime of mass surveillance. Our president @mer__edith calls on the UK to reconsider this misguided Bill, and affirms that Signal will *never* undermine our privacy commitments:https://t.co/LPLH5tdRCF
— Signal (@signalapp) March 9, 2023
The bill, which was proposed by former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, aims to require companies to remove illicit content, such as child sexual abuse.
Critics of the bill have stated that the proposed scanning technology would not be compatible with the end-to-end encryption protections that messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp provide.
Prior to her recent remarks on the bill, Whittaker had informed the BBC in February that Signal would depart from the UK if the bill necessitated a weakening of its privacy protections.
Signal, a non-profit organization headquartered in Silicon Valley, was founded by Brian Acton, a co-founder of WhatsApp, after he left the platform in 2017.
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