Meta executives could face jail if they fail to comply with new legal powers aimed at protecting UK children from paedophiles, the Government said on Wednesday.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she preferred dialogue with Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to ensure access to end-to-end encryption, in order for British police to track down child sex abusers.
But the online giant is planning to extend the encryption to Instagram direct messages and Facebook Messenger, in addition to WhatsApp, which Ms Braverman said would make the two platforms “safe havens for paedophiles”.
“I urge parents to take seriously the threat that Meta is posing to our children," the Cabinet minister told Times Radio.
“If necessary, we will have to use our powers in law, absolutely. But we don’t want to get to that point. I want to work constructively with these companies.
“We have a relationship with them. We’ve been asking for evidence of how they’re going to safeguard children, they’ve not been able to present that evidence to date."
Ms Braverman was speaking a day after the Government’s long-awaited Online Safety Bill passed its final stages in Parliament. It now awaits royal assent.
If social media platforms fail to prevent and remove illegal content, they will face fines of up to £18 million or 10 per cent of global revenue – potentially billions of pounds – and in extreme cases their executives could even face prison.
“We believe the solution exists whereby user privacy can be protected and child safety can be safeguarded, and tech leaders have identified a prototype of what that solution looks like,” the Home Secretary said.
“And we want Meta to now adopt that solution and roll it out widely.”
The company insists it has “robust” mechanisms in place to prevent and detect online abuse. But charities and campaigners including the NSPCC and the Internet Watch Foundation have urged Meta to provide reassurances over its expansion of encryption.
One survivor of child sexual exploitation online backed the calls. In a black-and-white video, she says: “Dear Mark Zuckerberg, I was 13 when I was groomed online and sexually assaulted in my bedroom, but sharing my story of survival gave me strength.
“No child should ever have to experience what I went through, and yet today, on your platforms, child sexual abuse is worse than ever. If you decide to implement end-to-end encryption without safety measures, this abuse will go undetected.”
