European police chiefs, backed by Europol, voiced strong concerns over the deployment of end-to-end encryption (E2EE) across digital communication platforms, specifically those announced recently by Meta, concerning Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
Europol fears these privacy measures could severely hamper law enforcement’s capability to combat and prosecute serious crimes, including child sexual abuse, terrorism, and human trafficking.
In December 2023, Meta announced the introduction of E2EE on the Facebook website and the Messenger app based on the Signal protocol. This introduced strong protection to over a billion users.
In early March 2024, Meta announced that in the context of achieving compliance with the EU’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA) legislation, it would roll out significant interoperability updates to its communication platforms, making it possible to maintain end-to-end encryption under all circumstances, even when users exchange messages with other, third-party apps.
Meta
The law enforcement authorities in Europe find this deeply concerning for their capability to fight crime by analyzing large volumes of metadata. The appeal for action was formalized in a Joint Declaration, which lays out a critical crossroads faced by the relationship between law enforcement agencies and the tech industry.
Historically, tech companies have played a pivotal role in aiding police investigations by providing data on suspects under lawful requests. This collaboration, according to Europol, has been instrumental in proactively detecting illegal activities on their platforms—efforts that have protected thousands of children from abuse and led to numerous arrests.
The declaration emphasizes that the rollout of end-to-end encryption threatens to undermine these efforts by preventing companies from effectively responding to lawful authorities and from identifying or reporting illegal activities. This inability to view encrypted communications could create “spaces that are beyond the reach of law enforcement,” a situation historically not tolerated by societies, as highlighted by the misuse of such anonymity on the dark web.
Europol’s Executive Director, Catherine De Bolle, highlighted the gravity of the situation, stating, “Our homes are becoming more dangerous than our streets as crime is moving online.” She stressed that securing the digital environment is imperative for law enforcement and justice systems to function effectively.
The Joint Declaration calls for a balanced approach that does not pit cybersecurity and privacy against public safety. It suggests that technical solutions are available but require flexibility and cooperation from the technology industry and governments. The chiefs are advocating for a “security by design” approach that ensures platforms’ capability to identify, report, and, under lawful authority, act on harmful and illegal activities.
The declaration ends with a call to democratic governments to establish frameworks that support law enforcement’s needs to keep the public safe, stressing the urgent need for solutions as offenders increasingly leverage technology to exploit victims and evade justice.
This stance has sparked heated discussions numerous times, as weakening E2EE by giving law enforcement backdoors to fight crime proactively means eliminating all security for people’s communications.
The existence of backdoors on communication platforms could allow malicious actors to discover and leverage them even if they’re not authorized. Moreover, it leaves people unprotected against oppressive governments with poor human rights records. Additionally, a backdoor of this type is hard to control to ensure that those privileged to access it are consistently using it legally and ethically.
Finally, introducing a backdoor on popular communication platforms would undermine user trust, pushing them to adopt alternative platforms that may end up in gray legal areas or be even more insecure.