UK Plans To Ban WhatsApp, Other Encrypted Messaging Apps

The UK Prime Minister David Cameron vows to ban messaging apps like WhatsApp, iMessage, Snapchat and Telegram to stop the use of encrypted communication services, as an effort to combat terror attacks.

Cameron said he will introduce a legislation to provide intelligence agencies a legal framework to crack down on communications of terror suspects. The new legislation would only be introduced if Cameron gets re-elected in the next parliamentary elections in May.

This means that all encrypted communication services including iMessage and WhatsApp that prevent government agencies from reading messages being sent through their apps would be targeted which could even amount to a ban.

Security experts have criticized the ban on messaging apps that use encryption saying that it wouldn’t be possible to implement properly.

Independent computer security expert Graham Cluley was quoted as saying by The Guardian that either tech companies would have to work with UK government and build backdoors into their software to allow the authorities to intercept messages, or the apps themselves will have to be banned.