India joins UK's campaign against Encrypted messages

New Delhi, Oct 14 : India has decided to back the UK-led campaign against end-to-end encryption of messages by social media giants such as Facebook. The governments have claimed that this feature acts as an obstacle for law enforcement against illegal activities by blocking all access to them. The system also prevents law enforcement investigating and prosecuting against online child sexual abuse, grooming and terrorist content.

 

India is among the seven countries to back UK's campaign against the system of encryption, others being USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. A joint international statement was released that addressed all tech companies to ensure that they do not blind themselves for illegal activity on their platforms such as child abuse images. The call also marks an expansion of the historic “Five Eyes” group of nations by including India and Japan.

 

The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an intelligence alliance with its origin dating back to the post–World War II period. The FVET had developed the ECHELON surveillance system in order to monitor the communications of the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. Today the system is used to monitor private communications worldwide. FVEY comprises of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. All these countries are party to the multilateral UK - USA Agreement which is a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.

 

Facebook said that end-to-end encryption is necessary to protect people’s most private information, in return. Facebook backed itself by stating that people prefer end-to-end encrypted messaging on various apps because it keeps their messages safe from hackers, criminals, and foreign interference.