David Cameron 'moronic and stupid' for attempting to ban WhatsApp, BBM, says Jimmy Wales

'You're too late, Dave - the genie's out of the bottle,' says Wikipedia founder

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has blasted prime minister David Cameron and the so-called Snooper's Charter, calling the very idea of censoring everyday digital communications in the UK "moronic and stupid" on both a technical and moral level.

As well as his already well-publicised views on freedom of speech, Wales also argued, during his keynote speech at IP EXPO in London today, that growing use of simple security technology is reducing the ability of governments to spy on citizens, anyway.

"Some of the increased powers people imagine are not possible," he said. "If you're chatting to someone using Telegram [a popular messaging app], the security services can store all the data they want, but they can't read it - it's encrypted."

In a direct response to Cameron, who in January 2015 vowed to crack down on encrypted communications, asking, "In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?", Wales answered: "It's too late, Dave - the genie is out of the bottle - and the maths works. You'll hear people saying, 'Oh, the NSA has probably cracked all the algorithms anyway". But I don't think that [level of governmental censorship] is something we're going to see anytime soon."

In summary, Wales called the physical attempts to censor or block technology, such as WhatsApp or BlackBerry Messenger, "not feasible, and it's a completely moronic and stupid thing to do".

At the same time, Wales criticised governments for not attempting to make communications safe for citizens in more constructive ways - building secure networks to cut down crime, rather than "trawling" for huge amounts of user data and censoring communications.

"As a direct result of the Snowden revelations, consumers have become aware of security issues," said Wales.

"We've also seen major data breaches where data has been breached from important places. We need a safe and secure internet, and this is something all governments should be diligently working on. But... not all governments are doing this and it's disturbing and surprising."