US, UK, and Australian Governments Push Facebook to Undermine Encryption

In an open letter dated October 4, 2019, the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia ask Facebook to delay the implementation of end-to-end encryption across its messaging services, something the company announced it was planning last March. The governments frame Facebook’s plan to secure the communications of all its users as a threat to public safety, a claim that is patently false. By requesting that Facebook design its encryption to facilitate law enforcement access, these governments are asking that the company put the security of all users at risk.

As New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) has long advocated, strong encryption not only protects users from criminals who may steal their information, it also protects domestic violence victims, journalists, and others who may be subject to stalking and criminal behavior that creates real-world harms. The US, the UK, and Australia have all taken steps to undermine encryption in the past, and are using unverified claims that encryption is an insurmountable hurdle to law enforcement in order to pressure Facebook—which manages billions of regular users’ communications—to make individuals less secure.

The following quote can be attributed to Andi Wilson Thompson, senior policy analyst at OTI:

“This attempt to pressure Facebook to delay its plan to introduce end-to-end encrypted messaging across its services puts real-world users in danger. Designing a system to protect the privacy and security of billions of users is crucial to public safety, and preventing the implementation of security features in order to facilitate law enforcement access is counterproductive. Facebook should absolutely continue its planned progress toward end-to-end encryption, and the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia should not work to undermine the security of communications technology that protects their own citizens from cyber and real-world threats.”