Facebook has admitted to a House of Commons committee that plans to implement end-to-end encryption on all messaging products will have a negative impact on the exploitation of some British children.
The firm takes many steps to prevent child exploitation, including scanning private messages and acting on referrals. As a result, 3,000 at-risk children are reported to the British National Crime Agency each year.
However, plans to switch to end-to-end encryption for all private messaging will reduce the number of cases Facebook is able to uncover.
The committee’s chair, Yvette Cooper, expressed her shock at the decision. However, Monika Bickert, the firm’s head of global policy management, ensured that Facebook would like to provide an experience that keeps all people safe.
Earlier, the social network had stopped a program that intended to protect children due to fears that a new EU privacy directive rendered it unlawful. This caused NSPCC, the UK’s leading children’s charity, to call on Facebook to continue scanning for signs of child abuse in the EU.
In contrast to Twitter, which has admitted its failure in stopping those who took part in the riots at the US Capitol building, the chief operating manager of Facebook has denied that their site played a major role in the riots; a statement which has been met with much disbelief.
