The United States, Great Britain and Australia call on Facebook to weaken encryption in the WhatsApp messenger and other services of the company so that special services can gain access to the correspondence of users if necessary. At the same time, the authorities emphasize that because of the reluctance of the social network to cooperate, children may suffer whose safety should not depend on the decision of one company. In turn, the head of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, categorically opposes backdoors, since due to their presence, the privacy of all users at once is at risk.

“Encryption is a reliable tool to increase privacy, but it also includes privacy for those who do bad things. When billions of people use the service, some of them will abuse it, committing truly terrible acts – for example, to molest minors, terrorism and extortion, ”Zuckerberg said in March this year.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr, Acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin Macalinan, U.K. Home Secretary Prity Patel and Australian Home Secretary Peter Dutton wrote a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking them to opt out of the end user encryption of the company’s many services. It is reported that so far the letter has not been officially made public, but a copy of it was at the disposal of BuzzFeed News.

Government officials expressed concern that Facebook’s desire to improve encryption on WhatsApp or Messenger would result in intelligence agencies not being able to track illegal activity through the online platform, including possible interference with elections, the sexual exploitation of children, or extremism and terrorism.

“Security enhancements in the virtual world should not make us more vulnerable in the real world,” the letter says. “Companies should not create their services in such a way that access to content is not possible, despite ongoing investigations of the most serious crimes.”

Authorities urge Facebook to prioritize public safety and consult with various governments before making any changes to encryption. Despite the fact that the letter acknowledges the effectiveness of Facebook in independently identifying content related to child pornography or calls for violence, it is also noted that these measures are not enough.

Mark Zuckerberg himself has not yet responded to this letter, but has repeatedly said that user privacy is in the first place for him. If you agree with the authorities and weaken the encryption by creating backdoors, which special services can use if necessary, this threatens all users without exception.

In March of this year, the head of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg promised that all the platforms belonging to him will soon become as secure as possible, and the privacy of users will increase. At the same time, the head of the company understands the risks that such a decision carries, but so far there is no way to influence such a situation.