The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned that Facebook’s plan to encrypt its messages could prevent child abuse detection.
The end-to-end encryption of the social media giant can, according to NCA director Rob Jones, hinder access to “cutting edge technology”.
The warning comes when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company was working on plans to expand encryption.
It has an obligation to alert privacy activists. The British government is also trying to contain the tech titan’s plans.
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Facebook had allowed its users to make trial voice and video calls within its main app to make it easier to make calls without opening its standalone Messenger app.
As part of this strategy, Facebook expanded the option of end-to-end encryption, where no one else, not even the company itself, can overhear or see what is being said or sent.
After Apple was criticized for introducing child safety updates, Apple announced a delay in the introduction.
The company promised last month it would check US customers’ phones and computers for images of child sexual abuse.
However, the move sparked a worldwide backlash from a large number of rights groups, with employees also criticizing the plan internally.
According to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the tech industry made over 21 million references to child sexual abuse on its platforms internationally in 2020.
