Meta company has now made it a default state to encrypt messages on facebook users and on messenger app. The move comes amidst opposition from critics saying that the default encryption position will prevent or make it harder for authourities and concerned parties to identify child abuse especially sexual abuse. This will make the government and the authorities to nab them and ensure justice is granted to victims.
Speaking after Meta announced this news, Home Secretary, James Cleverly, said,”We’ll continue to work closely with them (Meta) to keep children safe online, but we must be honest that in our view, this is a significant step back.” The same sentiments were echoed by James Babbage, director general for threats at the National Crime Agency, noting that their main role of protecting children from sexual abuse just got harder after Meta’s move to encrypt messages.
What does encryption entail?
According to the post by Loredana Crisan, head of Messenger, the encryption move meant that not even Meta,will be able to read what is sent nor the conversation unless one chooses to write to messenger for the same.
Regardless of the major efforts concerned children organizations and charities have done to ensure that facebook does not roll out encryption of messages, the company has gone ahead with its plans arguing of the robust safety measures to prevent, detect and combat abuse while maintaining online security.The organizations were afraid since most perpetrators of child sexual abuse ( paedophiles) mostly use facebook messenger and instagram. the company noted that ”When E2EE is default, we will also use a variety of tools, including artificial intelligence, subject to applicable law, to proactively detect accounts engaged in malicious patterns of behaviour instead of scanning private messages.”
