WhatsApp boss warns service could be blocked in UK if Online Safety Bill passes
WhatsApp could be banned in the UK if the government's Online Safety Bill is brought in, the company's head has warned.
Will Cathcart said the popular messaging company would not comply if the legislation forced it to scan messages for child abuse material, the BBC reported.
The messaging app uses end-to-end encryption to ensure that even Whatsapp's team cannot read users' messages.
"Our users all around the world want security - 98% of our users are outside the UK, they do not want us to lower the security of the product," he said.
"We've recently been blocked in Iran, for example. We've never seen a liberal democracy do that."
He added: "We won't lower the security of WhatsApp. We have never done that - and we have accepted being blocked in other parts of the world.
"When a liberal democracy says, 'Is it OK to scan everyone's private communication for illegal content?' that emboldens countries around the world that have very different definitions of illegal content to propose the same thing," Mr Cathcart said.
He added: "If companies installed software onto people's phones and computers to scan the content of their communications against a list of illegal content, what happens when other countries show up and give a different list of illegal content?"
The Online Safety Bill has been working its way through Parliament since being published in draft form in May 2021.
It is designed to help clamp down on online trolling and illegal forms of pornography by placing more responsibility on the platforms that internet users use.
Firms that break the rules it sets would face large fines from the sector's new regulator, Ofcom.
However, free speech campaigners have warned the Bill could be used as a tool for online censorship, incentivising or even forcing sites to take down legal speech simply because it offends some people.
Last November, Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan announced a raft of changes to the bill to appease potential opponents.
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