Social media tech rivals have united in defence against the proposed Online Safety Bill in the UK that would force companies to break end-to-end encryption and monitor users to root out child abuse images.
Signatories include the heads of Meta-owned WhatsApp, Signal, Sire, Viber, Oxen, Threema and Element.
End-to-end encryption prevents even the operators of these and other social media platforms from reading users’ messages, but the government says that strong encryption “cannot come at the cost of public safety”.
But Matthew Hodgson, chief executive of UK company Element, called the bill in its current state a "spectacular violation of privacy... equivalent to putting a CCTV camera in everyone's bedroom".
"The bill provides no explicit protection for encryption, and if implemented as written, could empower Ofcom to try to force the proactive scanning of private messages on end-to-end encrypted communication services,” read the letter.
Signatories believe this would compromise the safety of all users, posing an "unprecedented threat to the privacy, safety and security of every UK citizen and the people with whom they communicate around the world, while emboldening hostile governments who may seek to draft copy-cat laws".
A British government spokesperson said: "Tech companies have a moral duty to ensure they are not blinding themselves and law enforcement to the unprecedented levels of child sexual abuse on their platforms.
“The Online Safety Bill in no way represents a ban on end-to-end encryption, nor will it require services to weaken encryption.”
The bill runs the risk of backfiring, with WhatsApp, Signal and Threema representatives telling the BBC that they would rather be banned in the UK over complying with the bill.
Richard Collard of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) weighed in on the debate: "The front line of this fight to keep our children safe is private messaging - and it would be inconceivable for regulators and law enforcement to suddenly go into retreat at the behest of some of the world's biggest companies."
"Experts have demonstrated that it's possible to tackle child abuse material and grooming in end-to-end encrypted environments,” Collared added.