Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions he has had with (a) Facebook, (b) Google and (c) other social media companies on the introduction of end-to-end encryption within their platforms; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential effect of that encryption on child abuse online.

Ministers and officials have regular contact with technology companies, including Facebook and Google, about the safety of their platforms.

The UK supports strong encryption, but we are clear that the implementation of end-to-end encryption which wholly precludes tech companies’ access to content will have a disastrous impact on public safety.

As well as preventing law enforcement from securing lawfully authorised access to vital content as part of their investigations, it severely erodes tech companies’ ability to tackle the most serious illegal content on their platforms, including online child sexual exploitation and abuse.

All communication service providers must ensure that there will be no reduction to public safety when they implement new technology or other design choices.

Facebook’s proposals are of particular concern due to the risk profile of the platform. In 2020 Facebook provided 20.3 million child sexual abuse referrals to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC, the US body which processes industry reports of child sexual abuse). NCMEC’s previous assessment is that 70% of Facebook’s total referrals relate to Messenger and are therefore likely to be lost once that service is end-to-end encrypted.

The UK is leading work across the world urging all tech companies to collaborate with governments on mutually agreeable solutions that ensure user privacy is protected.