Apple threatens to stop FaceTime and iMessage in the UK over encryption law

Apple has criticized a British bill that could force tech platforms to weaken encryption. The company is threatening to discontinue FaceTime and iMessage in the UK because of the proposal.

The bill would make the UK government ‘the de facto global arbiter when it comes to what kind of data security and encryption is allowed’, says Apple, according to The Guardian. Under the proposal, tech platforms will be required to inform the British government if they want to change security, which would have a “negative impact” on intelligence services investigations.

Only after permission from the British government would Apple be allowed to make the security adjustments. Under the law, the British government can also force companies to disable certain protections immediately and without making this known to the outside world. There is now independent supervision and a company can appeal before such security measures have to be weakened.

The company says that this bill presents it with “the impossible choice” of knowingly and covertly installing vulnerabilities in software for the British government, which it says it would never do, or abandoning development of additional security features. Apple says it will not offer the services in the United Kingdom, reports the BBC.

Apart from this amendment to the Investigatory Powers Act, there is also criticism of the Online Safety Bill in the United Kingdom. Under this law, messaging services could be required to scan for child abuse content. In addition to Apple, WhatsApp and Signal previously protested against this; the latter is threatening to stop his services in the country because of this Bill.