Signal Chat app has once again promised to leave the United Kingdom if legislation is passed that requires all citizens’ messages to be inspected, according to Signal “president” Meredith Whittaker. Whittaker made the statement during a tech conference in the United States this week, where she once again criticized the UK Online Safety Bill. This law could compel chat services to monitor the messages sent by their users.
“If they were to order us to implement this, we will not do it,” Whittaker said during the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference. According to the Signal president, the surveillance business model has infiltrated our core infrastructure so deeply that people have no idea to what extent they are being surveilled, and they have had no say in the matter.
Whittaker warned against plans to undermine the encryption of chat services, as some governments want to do. “You can’t have a backdoor that only the good guys can go through,” she stated. Whittaker added that this is “mathematically impossible” and undermines the security of critical communications and infrastructure. The Signal president also expressed concern about the “anti-encryption” agenda that was introduced around 2018. Earlier this year, Whittaker stated multiple times that Signal would leave the UK if the controversial legislation is enacted.
No Comments