The US, the UK and Australia have published an open letter addressed to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking that his company delay plans for end-to-end encryption across its messaging apps and create a backdoor that would enable governments to access private communications. "We are writing to request that Facebook does not proceed with its plan to implement end-to-end encryption across its messaging services without ensuring that there is no reduction to user safety,” reads the letter signed by the UK home secretary Priti Patel, US attorney general William Barr and Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton, among others.
The signatories go on to raise concerns that Facebook’s encryption plan will prevent law enforcement agencies from finding illegal activity conducted through the social networking platform, such as child sexual exploitation, terrorism and election interference. "Risks to public safety from Facebook’s proposals are exacerbated in the context of a single platform that would combine inaccessible messaging services with open profiles, providing unique routes for prospective offenders to identify and groom our children," the letter reads.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced his plan to push the company toward more private forms of communication in March and said the company remains strongly opposed to government attempts to build backdoors. According to Reuters, Zuckerberg said in a livestreamed Q&A session that child exploitation risks weighed "most heavily" on him when he was making the decision to encrypt the messaging services and pledged steps to minimise harm. He was also “optimistic” that Facebook would be able to identify predators even in encrypted systems using the same tools it used to fight election interference, like patterns of activity and links between accounts on different platforms.
