UK Denies Backing Down on Plans to Scan Encrypted Messages for Harmful Content

(Photo: Bruno Vincent/Getty Images) The OFCOM (Office of Communication) logo was on the front of their headquarters on January 18, 2007, in London. British technology minister Michelle Donelan denied earlier media reports the UK government would modify its Online Safety Bill after settling with concessions from tech companies about its plan to allow the scanning of encrypted messages as a deterrent to crime.

The UK government has denied it would back down from its controversial Online Safety Bill, which would allow the scanning of encrypted messaging services for harmful content, despite earlier reports speculating it would do so.

The bill, which is due to become law later this year, has a provision allowing the media regulator Office of Communication (OFCOM) to order messaging services to use "accredited technology" to look for and take down child sexual abuse and other criminal material.

However, the Financial Times quoted British arts and heritage minister Stephen Parkinson Wednesday (September 6) saying that the OFCOM would only be able to intervene if scanning content was "technically feasible" and if the process met minimum standards of privacy and accuracy.

Tech Experts Call UK's Bid to Scan Encrypted Messages Impossible

According to MacRumors, many security experts believe tech tools to scan encrypted messages might never exist, while tech firms argued that content moderation policies, such as client-side scanning, are impossible to implement without circumventing end-to-end encryption, which ensures that only the user and the person they are communicating with can read or listen to what is sent.

As a result of this proposed policy, Apple has threatened to pull its services like FaceTime and iMessage in the UK should the bill go ahead in its current form. Other messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal, on the other hand, have expressed their intention to leave the UK altogether if the bill passed as it is as of this report.

Despite the government's apparent concession to tech companies' arguments, the UK's technology minister Michelle Donelan denied Thursday (September 7) that the bill has been modified. She argued that, if necessary, it would still require companies to work to develop technology to scan encrypted messages if they could not take action to stop child abuse on their platforms.

Donelan also told reporters that further work to develop the technology was needed, saying that government-funded research had shown it was possible, but fell short of showing evidence to back her claim.