The leading social network, Facebook is under pressure from the UK, US and Australia governments to create backdoor into its encrypted messaging systems to allow the governments access to encrypted users messages.
According to an open leter signed by US attorney general and acting secretary of homeland security, with UK home secretary, and the Australian minister for home affairs, the collective governments are urging the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg to Consult with them on how to implement end-to-end encryption on its messaging services.
While on already deployed end-to-end encryption, it must enable law enforcements access to the messages in a usable format, which in other words means providing a lawful access to the content of messages by creating a backdoor for the governments to access them.
Again, the letter raises more concerns about Facebook’s plan to enable end-to-end encryption in its messaging apps to prevent anyone, including law enforcement agencies from finding out the activities of its users by intercepting communications on the platform.
The arguement is that Facebook should prioritize public safety in the designing of its encryption system by creating a backdoor for law enforcements to gain access to illegal contents in a readable format and by duely consulting with relevant government agencies ahead of the implementation to ensure that such changes will not impede their access.
Facebook, however in a statement, said that it will strongly oppose government attempts to build backdoors into its messaging systems, and that deployment of end-to-end encryption is the right thing to do to protect people’s privacy, so it’ll defend it when the time is right.
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