The UK Cyber Security Bill is about to become law.The bill, which aims to make the UK "the safest place in the world to go online", passed both houses of Parliament on Tuesday and imposes strict requirements on large social platforms to remove illegal content. The bill will be implemented by Ofcom, the British telecommunications regulator.
In addition, the Cybersecurity Bill also provides for new age checks to prevent underage children from seeing harmful content. The bill would also prompt large social media platforms to be more transparent about the dangers they pose to children, while also giving parents and children the ability to report issues online. The potential penalties are also severe: up to 10% of a company's annual global revenue. The bill went through several amendments during parliamentary deliberations over many years.
But not only does online age verification raise serious privacy concerns, the bill could also put encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp at risk. Under the bill, encrypted messaging apps are obliged to check user messages for child sexual abuse content.
Depending on how the rule is enforced, this would fundamentally break the app's promise of end-to-end encryption to prevent third parties, including the app itself, from viewing user information. In March this year, WhatsApp refused to comply with the bill and threatened to leave the UK rather than change its encryption policy. WhatsApp joined Signal and other encrypted messaging services in protesting the bill, leading UK regulators to try to assuage their concerns by promising to only require measures that are "technically feasible".
Ofcom said it would "immediately start tackling illegal content and keeping children safe" and would take a "phased approach" to bringing the Cybersecurity Bill into effect.