MI5: Facebook releases malicious people if it implements e2e encryption

Ken McCallum, the boss of the British secret service MI5, says that the introduction of end-to-end encryption on Facebook’s platforms will give safe passage to malicious people in society with bad intentions. The man said this in an interview with Times Radio.

“With end-to-end encryption and no way to bypass that encryption, you give those few in society who have bad intentions a safe pass to do what they want. After all, they know that no one can control what they are doing in these private environments, ”McCallum said in an interview with Times Radio.

“The extent to which we can do our job actually depends as much on the decisions made in American boardrooms as on the decisions made in Afghanistan or Syria,” McCallum said in the interview. “Facebook’s plans will allow terrorist attacks to be prepared without the security forces being able to detect them in advance,” McCallum said.

According to McCallum, Facebook will no longer be able to use algorithms to detect illegal content. Subsequently, these will not be able to be reported and will be handed over to the competent authorities after receiving a warrant.

In 2019, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social media platform would focus more on privacy. He then announced that he wanted to provide Instagram, Messenger and Whatsapp with end-to-end encryption. Messenger supports end-to-end encryption, but this is not set by default. Since 2016, Whatsapp uses the Signal Protocol for secure chat and voice communication in all its apps.

In 2020, a Facebook programmer said it could be years before Messenger got standard end-to-end encryption. “Adding E2e encryption to an existing system is unbelievably challenging and requires everything to be redone,” it said. They fear that the safety of children will be compromised after the introduction of end-to-end encryption.