Facebook encryption plan ‘enables child abuse’

FACEBOOK’S controversial encryption plans “won’t give users real privacy” and will “cripple” child abuse-blocking software, MPS have been warned.

A leading expert said its plan to encrypt its Messenger service would still give it a “trove of information” on users.

Facebook has justified its plan, under which it will not be able to see what users upload, on grounds that it will enhance privacy. Critics say it will make it harder to detect terrorist activity and child abuse material, with the Home Secretary condemning the proposals as “dangerous and morally wrong”.

Today MPS from the all-party parliamentary group on social media will release a damning report on encryption citing Professor Hany Farid, the architect of the modern child abuse-scanning system.

He said Facebook’s proposals would not deliver the privacy benefits that Mark Zuckerberg, its chief executive, had promised.

The company “will still know with whom you are communicating, from where you are communicating, and a trove of information about your other online activities”, Prof Farid said. “This is a far cry from real privacy.”

He said encryption would “cripple the efficacy” of programmes such as Photodna, software he developed with Microsoft to block users from uploading known child abuse images to sites.

Facebook made more than 20 million reports of child abuse material on its apps last year, figures from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Childen in the US show.

Mr Zuckerberg announced plans to encrypt the Messenger app, which has more than a billion users, in 2019 as part of plans to turn Facebook into a “privacy-focused social network”. The company was contacted for comment.