The Battle Over Encrypted Messaging: Signal President Calls Out EU’s “Rhetorical Games”
The post The Battle Over Encrypted Messaging: Signal President Calls Out EU’s “Rhetorical Games” appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
TLDR The EU Commission has revised its Chat Control law proposal, now seeking to mandate “upload moderation” for encrypted messaging apps to detect CSAM before messages are transmitted. Signal President Meredith Whittaker argues that “upload moderation” is simply a rebranding of client-side scanning, which fundamentally undermines end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by creating vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers and hostile nation states. The revised proposal would require users of E2EE messaging apps to consent to scanning to detect CSAM, and those who do not consent would be prevented from sending visual content or URLs. Despite the EU Parliament initially voting to exclude E2EE apps from mass surveillance orders in the Chat Control legislation, some European countries continue to push for weakening chat encryption. Whittaker emphasizes that mandating mass scanning of private communications fundamentally undermines encryption, regardless of the terminology used, and calls on lawmakers to stop playing “rhetorical games” with such a serious topic. In a scathing blog post on Monday, Signal President Meredith Whittaker slammed the European Union’s latest proposal to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online, arguing that the revised Chat Control law is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to undermine end-to-end encryption (E2EE) through “rhetorical games.” The EU Commission first proposed the Chat Control law in mid-2022, which would have forced messaging apps to create a backdoor to E2EE messages to detect CSAM. While the EU Parliament initially voted against mass screening of encrypted communications, a revised draft of the law now seeks to mandate “upload moderation” as an alternative method of mass scanning. Whittaker argues that “upload moderation” is simply a rebranding of client-side scanning, a controversial technology that security and privacy experts say is incompatible with strong encryption. The revised proposal would require users of E2EE messaging apps to consent to scanning…
Filed under: News - @ June 18, 2024 8:20 pm