Online Safety Bill UK [UPSC Notes]

WhatsApp’s chief announced during a visit to the U.K. that the company would not comply with the country’s proposed Online Safety Bill (OSB) due to the bill’s outlawing of end-to-end encryption (E2E). In this context, understand what is the proposed online safety bill of the United Kingdom and related issues for the IAS exam.

What is the UK Online Safety Bill?

• The Online Safety Bill is a proposed British legislation that aims to improve online safety by placing certain “duty of care” obligations on online platforms. 
• Clause 110 of the OSB has received criticism for empowering the British telecommunications regulator to issue notices to most kinds of internet service providers, including private messaging apps and search engines, to identify and take down terrorism content that is communicated “publicly” and Child Sex Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) content that is communicated “publicly or privately”. 
• Although the OSB does not require the elimination of E2E encryption, doing so would effectively render it unusable because messaging apps would be required to examine all communications received through their system in order to identify and remove terrorist and CSEA content. 

What have other platforms said?

• Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, said the company “would definitely, 100% walk” if required to compromise the messaging platform’s level of privacy. 
• According to the CEO of British business Element, which operates the Matrix-based E2E encrypted messenger, the OSB may force it to leave the U.K. completely and relocate his organization’s offices.

What If the Platforms don’t comply?

• Platforms that do not comply may face penalties of up to £18 million or 10% of the platform’s global revenue of the preceding accounting year, whichever is higher.

Comparison with India:

• India has enacted a similar law through the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. 
• The Indian government has made it mandatory for messaging platforms with more than five million users in India to “enable the identification of the first originator” of a message, but this is not the same as asking for scanning and flagging of all encrypted content.

What is End-to-End Encryption?

• E2E encryption is a method of encrypting data that ensures only the intended recipient can decrypt the message using a unique decryption key. 
• The messaging service provider cannot decrypt the message, making it a secure method of communication. E2E encryption is offered by default on WhatsApp, Signal, Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime, and is an option on Meta’s Messenger and Telegram.

Conclusion:

• The proposed Online Safety Bill has caused concern among privacy and free speech advocates, as well as members of the British Parliament. 
• WhatsApp’s potential departure from the U.K. highlights the ongoing debate around privacy, encryption, and online safety.

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