Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp at Meta, has stated that the messaging app would not comply with requirements in the UK’s online safety bill that aimed to ban end-to-end encryption. Cathcart, who was visiting the UK to discuss the government’s flagship internet regulation with legislators, described the bill as the most concerning piece of legislation currently being discussed in the western world. He argued that the vast majority of WhatsApp users around the world want security and that it would be an odd choice for the company to lower the security of its product in a way that would affect 98% of its users.
The online safety bill would expand the government’s power to demand the removal of encryption, as it would allow the government or Ofcom to require WhatsApp to apply content moderation policies that would be impossible to comply with without removing end-to-end encryption. WhatsApp could face fines of up to 4% of its parent company Meta’s annual turnover if it refused to comply, or it could withdraw from the UK market entirely. Cathcart called for the bill to include language explicitly defending end-to-end encryption for messaging services, similar to legislation in other jurisdictions such as the EU’s digital markets act.