Facebook delays encrypted messages until 2023 following child abuse fears
Facebook has delayed plans to encrypt private messages until 2023 out of fear that it will make it harder to spy catch child abuse.
Facebook, also known as Meta, had originally planned to encrypt messages in its Messenger and Instagram apps at some point next year, but said it was extending the deadline to ensure safety measures were in place.
Head of safety, Antigone Davis wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: “We’re taking our time to get this right and we don’t plan to finish the global rollout of end-to-end encryption by default across all our messaging services until sometime in 2023.”
Encrypted messages are easier for terrorists and paedophiles to use as it limits the chance of the content being being intercepted.
Priti Patel, the home secretary, called Facebook’s plans “morally wrong and dangerous”.