'WhatsApp enables paedophiles to operate outside law'

LONDON: With its end-to-end encryption technology, Facebook-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp enables paedophiles and other criminals to keep themselves insulated from the reach of the law, UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd has said.

Platforms like WhatsApp should do more to enable the government to read messages shared by criminals, Rudd said at a Conservative Party event in Manchester, Sputnik news agency reported on Tuesday.

"I do not accept it is right that companies should allow them (paedophiles and other criminals) to operate beyond the reach of law enforcement," Rudd said.

"We must require the industry to move faster and more aggressively. They have the resources and there must be greater urgency," she added.

Rudd also called on technological giants such as Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft to ramp up their efforts to counter spread of extremist materials on their platforms.

The end-to-end encryption is used in a variety of the most secure messaging apps, including Apple's, as well as WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram.