Lib Dems welcome government’s apparent U-turn on seeking to restrict end-to-end encryption for popular messaging apps and online communication services.
Home secretary Amber Rudd appears to have backed down on her crusade against end-to-end encryption that began after the Westminster terror attack on 22 March 2017.
After it emerged that attacker Khalid Masood used WhatsApp minutes before carrying out his killings, Rudd told the BBC that messaging apps must not “provide a secret place” for terrorists to communicate , and that when a warrant had been issued, officers should be able to “get into situations like encrypted WhatsApp”.
On Sky News, Rudd said she supported end-to-end encryption as a cyber security measure, but said it was “absurd to have a situation where you can have terrorists talking to each other on a formal platform that can’t be accessed”.
