The UK government hires ad agency M&C Saatchi to run a publicity campaign criticizing Meta's plans to make Messenger end-to-end encrypted by default
only because the UK gov would be happy to let competitors throw Facebook under the bus. But not the long term. Matthew Green / @matthew_d_green : If somehow it looked like we were headed to a world with end-to-end encryption and client-side CSAM scanning, law enforcement wouldn't be mollified. They'd just change their strategy. Heather Burns / @webdevlaw : This will actually exacerbate problems around the #OnlineSafetyBill, where you have DCMS wanting a law which is firm but still business-friendly to encourage trust and inward investment, vs the Home Office, who take the view that anyone who owns a phone is a terrorist pervert. https://twitter.com/... Noah Shachtman / @noahshachtman : https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Alexander Martin / @alexmartin : Of course there are significant differences between end-to-end encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp and social networking platforms like Facebook, as covered here: https://news.sky.com/... https://twitter.com/... @twlldun : Wasn't this literally on the Paedo episode of Brasseye? https://twitter.com/... Matt Burgess / @mattburgess1 : Looks like the UK government's attack on end-to-end encryption is about to be ramped up to new heights https://twitter.com/... Danny Palmer / @dannyjpalmer : The way the UK government keeps trying to undermine encryption is increasingly sinister. The criminals they say they're targeting will use end up using something else while we all have our privacy and security undermined. https://twitter.com/... Mallory Moore / @chican3ry : This is the Home Office that directed other government departments to drop Stonewall on account of an absurd argument that Stonewall were “being hired to lobby the government on policy”. Now literally hiring and agencies to help astroturf an anti-privacy movement. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Marc / @trojjer : They think that this is appropriate to sway people “who haven't even heard of end to end encryption”... Of course, “just for the the messaging apps”, no mention of email encryption and TLS which has been around a lot longer. https://twitter.com/... Kate Bevan / @katebevan : I'm sorry WHAT???? *loud, extremely profane swearing* https://twitter.com/...
The immediate significance is a shift from direct government appeals to organized public persuasion aimed at Meta's Messenger rollout, with CSAM detection serving as the stated policy pressure point.
First-order effects
M&C Saatchi is engaged to run the UK government's campaign, while Meta faces a coordinated public challenge to its plan to enable end-to-end encryption by default in Messenger.
The Home Office's encryption position is amplified beyond formal policy channels, placing Meta's product decision alongside the government's CSAM-safety argument.
Second-order effects
Meta's other messaging services, including WhatsApp, become more exposed to the same UK policy framing; related coverage shows WhatsApp's approach to detecting child sexual abuse material was already under scrutiny.
The campaign raises the cost for Meta of treating encryption as solely a product-security decision, as ministers can use public safety messaging to build support for intervention.
Third-order effects
If public campaigns become a regular complement to legislative pressure, encryption providers will face a policy environment in which default privacy features are contested through both product regulation and public opinion.
The dispute foreshadows a broader UK conflict over whether online-safety rules can preserve business confidence while demanding access or safeguards around encrypted communications; Meta later warned that undermining encryption in the Online Safety Bill would set a wider precedent.
The trend: Governments are increasingly pairing child-safety arguments with public and legislative pressure to shape how major platforms deploy end-to-end encryption.
A PR agency hired by the Home Office (using your money) plans to shut an adult and a child in a glass box, with the adult looking “knowingly” at the child now and then - all to sway public opinion on encryption. https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...
EXCLUSIVE: the UK gov't is about to launch a multi-pronged PR campaign to undermine the privacy of its citizens' communications. And some of the tactics are 👀👀👀👀 https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...
Although Facebook is the primary target of this pressure campaign, it's hard not to notice how closely Apple's client-side scanning announcement fits with the UK government's desires. https://twitter.com/...
ICYMI, the government of this perfectly normal country is preparing to stage an actual Qanon fantasy, as a PR stunt, in order to attack the encryption on messaging apps. https://twitter.com/...
Not a glass box with a family in and hundreds of criminals and people in suits and uniforms looking on with binoculars and clipboards, then? https://twitter.com/...
In case you missed my story about the police failures in the Abdul Elahi case, it seems disingenuous of the government and police to criticise end-to-end encrypted services when wrongly tell abuse victims that there isn't a way to investigate them: https://news.sky.com/... https…
As someone who day to day is quite concerned with privacy and security, privacy features such as end to end encryption ARE a safety feature. There's no tension between safety and privacy. It's hard to understand (given the long history of child sex abusers using unencrypted...
Ridiculous. The equivalent of criticising door makers for including locks. After all, it makes the police's life easier if they can walk straight in. https://twitter.com/...
The serious purpose of this campaign (which started in 2019 by the way) is to make it difficult to deploy new encrypted services. The UK doesn't actually care if people figure out how to solve end-to-end encrypted scanning.
...but you must admit this will be worth it to see how the “won't somebody think of the children (and impose safety tech authoritarianism to keep them safe)” crowd will respond to an adult staring in a malicious manner at an actual child in a confined space. https://twitter.com/.…
There's going to be a big push against end-to-end encryption this week. Don't be fooled: this won't help vulnerable children online. The opposite, it will make them more vulnerable.
“One key slide notes that ‘most of the public have never heard’ of end-to-end encryption - adding that this means ‘people can be easily swayed’ on the issue. The same slide notes that the campaign ‘must not start a privacy vs safety debate’.” https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...
End-to-end encryption is probably the only issue where the entire tech industry is on Facebook's side. Collective reaction: “Jesus, do we have to explain this *again*?” https://twitter.com/...
This is the most stupid idea yet from this government. Diminishing #encryption to protect children? @MCSaatchiLondon don't get involved with this #propaganda stunt, for the sake of your #reputation if nothing else. #PublicRelations #EncryptionKeepsUsSafe https://twitter.com/...
The UK has a combo of (1) culturally, a longstanding lurid preoccupation with harm to children that borders on the unseemly and (2) politically, the goal of achieving total surveillance. Those things are intermingling here, the latest salvo in the UK govt's obsessive war on E2EE.…
“The UK government is set to launch a multi-pronged publicity attack on end-to-end encryption, Rolling Stone has learned. One key objective: mobilizing public opinion against Facebook's decision to encrypt its Messenger app.” <Resist https://twitter.com/...
Because those often found doing questionable activities often take the law into consideration. I guess MPs have enjoyed the encryption when it came to discussing questionable PPE contracts. https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...
End-to-end encryption keeps everyone safe online. The Government doesn't like it though, because it makes it hard for them to snoop on everyone all the time. That's why they're preparing to spend half a million quid lying to you about it. https://www.rollingstone.com/ ...
this kind of selective use of children's safety as a political tool makes it extremely clear that for them it's not really about children's safety, it's about furthering an agenda of increased surveillance and control.
Similar to professional wrestling in the US, this whole situation is a show being played by actors. Neither side is genuine in its acts nor statements of intent. Don't fall for it. https://twitter.com/...
If the UK government needs to do a PR campaign on the “evils” of encryption, that means: 1. Encryption works and 2. They do not like it. People need to be free in their communications with others despite the fact a small percentage may use the technology for criminal purposes. ht…
The main law enforcement ask (and the UK is just the part of the global law enforcement community with the most invasive laws) is retrospective access to data. They also want these real-time scanning systems, but they're terrified encryption means losing data access.
I think some people think they're going to be clever by deploying client-side scanning, thus giving the UK “what it's asking for.” In the short term this might work — only because the UK gov would be happy to let competitors throw Facebook under the bus. But not the long term.
If somehow it looked like we were headed to a world with end-to-end encryption and client-side CSAM scanning, law enforcement wouldn't be mollified. They'd just change their strategy.
This will actually exacerbate problems around the #OnlineSafetyBill, where you have DCMS wanting a law which is firm but still business-friendly to encourage trust and inward investment, vs the Home Office, who take the view that anyone who owns a phone is a terrorist pervert. ht…
Of course there are significant differences between end-to-end encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp and social networking platforms like Facebook, as covered here: https://news.sky.com/... https://twitter.com/...
The way the UK government keeps trying to undermine encryption is increasingly sinister. The criminals they say they're targeting will use end up using something else while we all have our privacy and security undermined. https://twitter.com/...
This is the Home Office that directed other government departments to drop Stonewall on account of an absurd argument that Stonewall were “being hired to lobby the government on policy”. Now literally hiring and agencies to help astroturf an anti-privacy movement. https://twitter…
They think that this is appropriate to sway people “who haven't even heard of end to end encryption”... Of course, “just for the the messaging apps”, no mention of email encryption and TLS which has been around a lot longer. https://twitter.com/...