Priti Patel: Facebook encryption plan 'could harm' fight against child abuse

Facebook plans to extend its end-to-end ecryption to its Messenger and Instagram services

Home Secretary Priti Patel will use a virtual conference today to urge Facebook to "take the safety of children as seriously" as it does the business of advertising on internet.

Patel will warn the tech giant that its plan to roll out end-to-end encryption across all its messaging platforms could jeopardise the ongoing work to combat child abuse.

"We cannot allow a situation where law enforcement's ability to tackle abhorrent criminal acts and protect victims is severely hampered," Patel will tell the conference.

"Sadly, at a time when we need to be taking more action, Facebook are pursuing end-to-end encryption plans that place the good work and progress achieved so far [on fighting the issue of child abuse] in jeopardy.

"The offending will continue, the images of children being abused will proliferate - but the company intends to blind itself to this problem through end-to-end encryption which prevents all access to messaging content. This is not acceptable."

The virtual event is being organised by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), and will be attended by law enforcement, child protection, and civil society experts from the UK, US, Ireland, Australia and Canada.

The NSPCC is expected to release a report on end-to-end encryption during the event.

An early draft of the report said that increased use of end-to-end encryption would protect the privacy of adults at the expense of children's safety. The charity's report will also show that more than half of UK adults believe the ability to detect child abuse images and disrupt such events is more important than the protection of user privacy.

The charity's claims are not without controversy, with social media users likening encryption to car airbags for online safety.

The NSPCC said last month that 52 per cent of online child sex crimes in England and Wales were committed over Facebook-owned apps.

Nearly 682,000 children aged 10 to 15 spoke to someone on the internet they had not met in person in the past year, according to the Office for National Statistics. 74 per cent of those contacts were through private messages.

Ms Patel has grown increasingly vocal about the dangers of encryption technology since Facebook's announcement of the extension of end-to-end encryption in its services in 2019. Facebook currently uses encryption technology in its WhatsApp messaging service but has plans to roll out the feature in its Messenger and Instagram services, as well.

Major digital firms use a variety of technologies to identify child abuse images and detect sexual abuse in private messages. Experts have raised concerns that rolling out end-to-end encryption in Instagram and Facebook would leave such tools useless.

The Home Office estimates that Facebook's encryption plans would result in removal of about 12 million reports of child abuse to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children each year.

More than 2,500 arrests have been made in the UK following such reports, leading to safeguarding of about 3,000 children.

Despite concerns expressed by the governments, encrypted messaging remains a sensitive topic with much public support.

Earlier this month, the Open Rights Group (ORG) urged the Home Office to clarify all legal and technical measures that it had been considering to compel Facebook to break end-to-end encryption on its messaging apps.

The ORG said that the attacks by the government cannot be seen as 'just' targeting Facebook. Rather, the government seems to be planning to use powers introduced in the Investigatory Powers Act to curb the ability of online platforms to use encryption, especially at scale.

The group said that the move is predicated on the assumption that 'we are all criminals'.

Patel and the NSPCC have been attacked on social media over a lack of understanding of the benefits of end-to-end encryption. Users have pointed out that encryption protects everyones' privacy - and banning it will simply see criminals switch to other apps, while leaving regular citizens' conversations exposed.