Michele, this is simple. Right now, Whatsapp, Telegram, Signal and other instant messengers encrypt messages between users in such a way that even the company can’t see what you are typing.
The UK wants to end that. The reason they give is that they want to scan for child porn, but they reserve the right to scan for anything, including people typing subversive things about the government or even vaccine denial like the crap you post a lot.
The only choice in front of anyone is this: should Whatsapp stop doing end-to-end encryption or not?
At this moment, all WhatsApp messages, including child porn, are encrypted and undetectable.
The British are proposing to require WhatsApp to decrypt these messages making it possible for government to spy on these messages. This would make child porn detectable, along with all other messages.
WhatsApp has said they would rather cut off the UK than comply with this proposed law.
Whether or not the UK passes this law, and whether or not WhatsApp cuts off the UK, child porn messages are encrypted and effectively undetectable in WhatsApp. This is no worse than the situation on Telegram, Signal and other encrypted messaging systems.
The only outcome where child porn messages are detectable is if WhatsApp gives up encryption and complies with the proposed UK law. If they do that, then all messages become detectable and readable by governments, including non-child-porn messages.
Watching child-porn is a sick perversion and so is every government. I’m against both so shutting them down seems like the only option. Having said that, I’m not against private messaging, especially for businesses. I just don’t know what it looks like or how to make that work in order to protect the innocent.
