Signal would 'walk' from UK if Online Safety Bill undermined encryption

I don't think the bill will pass in its current form. Can't see it happening.

There is a difference between an APK being installable or downloadable from a store and your CEO getting into legal heat because they won't backdoor their encryption.

> The government, and prominent child protection charities have long argued that encryption hinders efforts to combat online child abuse - which they say is a growing problem.

So take using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

What they should be doing, is rather then increase the risk of for the majority who use encryption for valid reasons (privacy, not nefarious), is invest in services to allow individuals to gain help, in a manner where they won't be ostracised and at risk, all from trying to come forward and get help to amend their behavior.

I am father myself, and like a majority (being a parent is a moot point really) am appalled and disgusted by CP, but me being that way won't stop individuals from succumbing to obtaining CP. Some of them do this even though they know it could trash their seemingly normal life (they often have their own families who are totally unaware). This to me suggests there is some sort of psychological disorder at play, and these people need professional help and intervention.

Trying to snoop on everyone, to seek these people out won't achieve anything. They are willing to offend even with extreme risks already in place (being labelled as a pedophile for the rest of your life). Them being snooped on won't stop it all, the same vicious cycle will continue to play out, but now with all of us lacking a basic right to privacy.

You have to consider how this would happen. If the government bans E2EE, Apple and Google will have to ban E2EE from their UK stores.

Apps like Signal will then have to make a choice. Either publish an app that does not use E2EE or get removed from the app stores. What Signal are saying is that they would accept the ban rather than publish an app with weakened encryption.

Apple users will not be able to make their own choice. Android users will be able to make their own choice thanks to side-loading.

> "we would absolutely 100% walk rather than ever undermine the trust that people place in us to provide a truly private means of communication."

This from the same signal that refuses to update its privacy policy to reflect the fact that they've started permanently storing sensitive user data in the cloud (https://community.signalusers.org/t/proper-secure-value-secu...). The same Signal that ignored the users who didn't want any of their data kept in the cloud in the first place (https://community.signalusers.org/t/dont-want-pin-dont-want-...).

That, combined with the way they were misleading in their communications (https://old.reddit.com/r/signal/comments/htmzrr/psa_disablin...) already undermined the trust I was placing in them.

At this point I consider the fact that the very first sentence of their privacy policy has been a lie since 2020 to be a dead canary.