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WhatsApp Allows Pedophiles to Operate Outside the Law - UK Home Secretary

© AFP 2023 / LIONEL BONAVENTUREThe logo of mobile app "WhatsApp" is displayed on a tablet on January 2, 2014 in Paris
The logo of mobile app WhatsApp is displayed on a tablet on January 2, 2014 in Paris - Sputnik International
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By using end-to-end encryption, the communication service WhatsApp allows pedophiles and other criminals to operate beyond the reach of the law, British Interior Minister Amber Rudd has said at a Conservative Party event in Manchester.

"I do not accept it is right that companies should allow them [pedophiles and other criminals] to operate beyond the reach of law enforcement," Britain's Interior Minister Amber Rudd told Conservative party activists before admitting that she didn't understand how encryption works.

"We must require the industry to move faster and more aggressively. They have the resources and there must be greater urgency," the Interior Minister insisted, noting that she wants the "flawed" technology to be changed.

Moreover, Rudd also called on major technological giants such as Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft to go further in counter extremist material.

Meanwhile, the end-to-end encryption is used in a variety of the most secure messaging apps, including Apple's, as well as WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram. The UK government has already slammed the technology on multiple occasions, saying that it keeps them from reading terrorists' and criminals' messages. However, according to the experts, it also keeps ordinary citizens from having their private messages read by criminals, and is used to secure banking technologies, among other functions. In 2015, 857 people were detained in London alone for "offensive" social media posts, according to The Register, a 37 percent increase over 2010.

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