Meta would remove WhatsApp from the Netherlands at the mandatory encryption back door

Meta does not want to give up the encryption of WhatsApp. It would even make the app inaccessible in the Netherlands if an encryption back door were made mandatory. This is apparent from an article by NRC.

Backdoor encryption

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate has had conversations with Meta about WhatsApp in recent years. This shows that it does not like an encryption backdoor at all. The government may want to make this mandatory, for example to combat child pornography. Meta believes that encryption is essential for WhatsApp.

Of course, it was not the plan of Minister Grapperhaus and associates to jeopardize the security of the app, although a back door in the encryption does sound like a door is ajar after all (including for cyber criminals). At the same time, there is also the problem that people now trust encryption, which is used, among other things, to enable payment transactions in a secure manner. If back doors could be built in them, the public could have doubts about its overall safety.

Fight against online child abuse

Don’t worry, WhatsApp will in any case not be banned from the Netherlands for this reason in the near future. Justice has not succeeded in creating a back door in the encryption without making communication in general insecure. However, that is not the end of the matter, it is still looking for ways to achieve such a back door in the safest possible way.

If it is not via the Netherlands, then perhaps via Europe. The European Union is also considering ways to combat online child sexual abuse. That wants to impose the obligation on tech companies to scan messages and photos for the sexual abuse of minors. Something Apple was already doing in a way, but it was criticized so much that it stopped doing so.

How are you in it, would you consider it a bad thing if there was indeed a backdoor in WhatsApp? Leave your comment below this article.