Meta's decision to encrypt messages on Facebook, Messenger criticised. Here's why

Social media giant Meta's decision to start fully encrypting messages on Facebook and Messenger has been criticised by US prosecutors and child safety groups, a report by The Guardian said late Friday (Dec 8). On Wednesday, Meta said that the end-to-end encryption feature would be available for use immediately. However, it may take some time for all Messenger accounts to be updated with default end-to-end encryption.

Encryption hides the contents of a message from anyone apart from the sender and the recipient by converting text and images into unreadable cyphers that are unscrambled on receipt. Meta has argued that encryption can help keep users safe from hackers, fraudsters, and criminals.

However, prosecutors and child safety groups said that the encryption would hamstring the rescue of child sex trafficking victims and the prosecution of predators.

The Guardian report on Friday said that social media companies have been legally obligated to send any evidence of child sexual abuse material they detect to the United States' National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). From here, the evidence is forwarded to relevant domestic and international law enforcement agencies.

An NCMEC spokesperson said that encryption on platforms "without the ability to detect known child sexual abuse material and create actionable reports will immediately cripple online child protection as we know it."

“NCMEC anticipates the number of reports of suspected child sexual abuse from the larger reporting companies will plummet by close to 80 per cent,” the spokesperson added.

Ali Burns, an assistant US attorney in Illinois, also told the publication that the identification and rescue of exploited children would be made more difficult by encryption, as investigators would often only be able to identify victims by gaining access to a suspect’s social media accounts and private messages.

“It would make it more challenging to corroborate evidence, to be able to verify. I can see this being a challenge for law enforcement,” Burns added.

Civil groups, however, argued that encryption protects individuals’ data and free expression, the report said.

In October, the American Civil Liberties Union, a non-profit human rights organisation, said, "This level of security not only protects individuals from cyber-attacks but also empowers citizens to communicate freely without fear of surveillance, censorship, and warrantless searches – whether by the government, Big Tech, data brokers, or anyone else."

(With inputs from agencies)