The President of privacy-focused messaging app Signal, Meredith Whittaker, has criticized a reworked European Union proposal for a legislation known as the Chat Control law. This proposed law first came to light in 2022, seeking to introduce measures that would in effect require messaging apps to create backdoors to end-to-end encrypted messages. An updated draft of the law is now looking to use an alternative approach for mass scanning named “upload moderation” to battle digital child exploitation material.
Whittaker claims that the term “upload moderation” is just a new strategy to destabilize encryption, potentially leaving private chats exposed to hackers and adversarial states. She disagreed with those asserting that “upload moderation” won’t weaken encryption because it operates before a message or video is secured. Whittaker emphasized the vital role of end-to-end encryption in preserving privacy amidst rising levels of state and corporate surveillance and stressed the importance of maintaining it.
The refined Chat Control law proposal expects telecom service operators to implement “upload moderation” for detecting and combating child exploitation material. This could involve techniques such as the mass scanning of private chats against state-led databases, or using artificial intelligence models to identify inappropriate speech and content.
Nevertheless, Whittaker countered that these “branding exercises” fail to deceive encryption professionals. Regardless of whether a security loophole arises from tampering, forcing chats through a surveillance system prior to encryption, or another method, the result is still the creation of a vulnerability that could be exploited by hackers and adversarial states, she said.
Signal, which uses elliptic curve cryptography to underpin its end-to-end encryption for messages, audio, and video services, had previously hinted at exiting the UK market following the passage of the Online Safety Bill, which could allow for backdoor access to encryption services by authorities. The app has integrated cryptocurrencies to verify transactions akin to its rival, Telegram, and began accepting donations in Bitcoin, Ether, and other digital currencies in March 2021 to back the Signal Technology Foundation.