Seven of the world’s leading messaging apps have written a scathing open letter to the UK government over its proposed Online Safety Bill.
Bosses from firms including Signal and WhatsApp say the bill would lead to the mass surveillance of personal communications in what would become the “British internet.”
Urging ministers to “urgently rethink” the legislation, they said it “poses an unprecedented threat to the privacy, safety and security of every UK citizen and the people with whom they communicate around the world.”
If given the go-ahead in its current form, tech bosses said they would have no choice but to withdraw services from the UK in what experts said would set a “concerning global precedent” on encryption….