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The US government and its allies are seeking to stop Facebook from expanding end-to-end encryption across the company's messaging services over claims it will prevent law enforcement agencies from tracking down criminals.
The Justice Department has been sharing a letter, dated Oct. 4, that will urge company CEO Mark Zuckerberg to ensure that law enforcement can still request access to people's private messages in criminal investigations, despite Facebook's plan to roll out end-to-end encryption.
"We must find a way to balance the need to secure data with public safety and the need for law enforcement to access the information they need to safeguard the public, investigate crimes, and prevent future criminal activity," reads the letter, which is signed by US Attorney General William Barr, and the US's acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan.
Joining them on the letter is the UK's Secretary of State for the Homeland Department, and Australia's Minster for Home Affairs. BuzzFeed was first to report the news.
The document represents the Justice Department's latest push to reignite the encryption debate and compel Silicon Valley to create a "government backdoor" into their technology products. According to federal investigators, the encryption on messaging services and smartphones has stymied US law enforcement from stopping terrorists and collecting evidence against suspected criminals.
The letter from the US Attorney General makes the same argument, but focuses on how child sex offenders can use the same encryption to help them prey on underage users over Facebook's own products. Currently, the company can detect and report the illegal activities, which has resulted in over 2,500 arrests in the UK alone. However, Barr and his counterparts claim any effort to expand end-to-end encryption risks aiding the suspected criminals in evading law enforcement.
"It is critical to get this right for the future of the internet," the letter adds. "Children's safety and law enforcement's ability to bring criminals to justice must not be the ultimate cost of Facebook taking forward these proposals."
The letter was written in response to Zuckerberg's announcement back in March over how Facebook plans to prioritize privacy, and thereby collect less personal data from users. Currently, the Facebook-owned WhatsApp already uses end-to-end encryption. However, the company plans on bringing the same technology to Facebook Messenger as the default mode.
"We're going to enable 2 billion people around the world to have the most personal conversations with each other privately, without having to worry about hackers, governments, or even us, to see what they're saying," Zuckerberg said back in April.
The letter from the US government and its allies is urging Facebook to halt the encryption effort, and work with them on a new approach. But Facebook said it doesn't plan on backing down.
"We believe people have the right to have a private conversation online, wherever they are in the world," Facebook told PCMag in statement.
"End-to-end encryption already protects the messages of over a billion people every day. It is increasingly used across the communications industry and in many other important sectors of the economy," the company added. "We strongly oppose government attempts to build backdoors because they would undermine the privacy and security of people everywhere." (Users on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger can also report encrypted messages to Facebook, in addition to blocking the sender.)
Other companies such as Apple have made the same argument in response to the FBI wanting access to locked iPhones. Nevertheless, the letter from Barr and his allies indicates the US government is preparing to fight another round in the encryption debate.