Fears that paedophiles and terrorists will have 'a place to hide' on Facebook as the social media platform boosts privacy on its Messenger service
- On Tuesday Mark Zuckerberg unveiled his 'end to end encryption' service
- The Facebook founder says it will offer the same privacy as Whatsapp
- But his announcement has been savaged by terror and child abuse experts
- They claim his 'cavalier' attitude will leave groups vulnerable and 'less safe'
Facebook has been accused of giving paedophiles and terrorists 'a place to hide' after it unveiled plans to boost privacy on Facebook messenger.
Founder Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday that it will introduce 'end to end encryption' on the platform, so that it offers the same level of privacy as its WhatsApp service.
Speaking at Facebook's F8 developers' conference in San Jose, he boasted that the change would offer users 'intimate spaces' where they can speak with 'complete confidence' that their communications will remain private'.
Developers at the F8 developer conference were also told how they could plan things like 'political protests' on encrypted platforms, safe from inspection by anyone, including governments of Facebook itself.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the F8 Facebook Developers conference on Tuesday in San Jose, California
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Facebook speaks during the keynote F8 Facebook Developer Conference at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California on Tuesday
But yesterday, the plans met with a backlash from terror and child sex abuse experts who lambasted Mr Zuckerberg for his 'cavalier' attitude to technology which will make people 'less safe'.
Andy Burrows, NSPCC associate head of child safety online, said: 'Facebook is showing a complete disregard for children's safety with this move.
'Mark Zuckerberg has ploughed ahead despite openly acknowledging that it will mean children will be less safe. This is because Facebook cannot access these messages to provide evidence to police in criminal cases.
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'It gives groomers a place to hide while they target children.
'This cavalier attitude can only be stemmed by bringing in an independent regulator that will hold tech companies to account, with tough criminal sanctions facing those that fail in their duty of care to children.'
Professor Anthony Glees, director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, branded the move to step up encryption on Facebook messenger as 'an act of total irresponsibility'.
Founder Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday that it will introduce 'end to end encryption' on the platform, so that it offers the same level of privacy as its WhatsApp service.
An attendee takes a photograph of a sign during Facebook Inc's F8 developers conference in San Jose, California
'It is a cynical marketing ploy designed to pull in younger people, and yet it is precisely younger people who are most at risk of being drawn into terrorism. It sounds appealing but it increases the risk and danger.
'What it allows is hidden network-building. This allows people with wicked intent to fish for recruits and fish for victims without fear of anyone finding out.'
Terror experts have previously raised fears that encrypted platforms like Facebook's WhatsApp messaging service, or its rival Telegram, give would-be terrorists with a platform where they can make plans.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
But yesterday they warned that the problem could become even worse on Facebook messenger, because the social media platform brings together groups of people who may not already know each other in real life.
'Zuckerberg is offering groups of people, which could be terrorist networks, an opportunity to communicate with each other without having an opportunity to decrypt messages. It makes it easier for terrorists – Islamists or other extremists on the far right as well – to organise themselves,' Mr Glees added.
End to end encryption is supposed to make it impossible for anyone to read a message, other than the person who sent it and its intended recipients.
Instead of being sent as plain text, the message is scrambled as a meaningless series of digits. It can only be unscrambled using a key, which is held by the sender and the recipients.
That key is only useful for a short time, meaning that it cannot be hijacked and used again by someone who wants to intercept the messages.
Ami Vora, WhatsApp's vice president of product management, boasted at the F8 conference that its end to end encryption ensures 'only the sender and the receiver of a message can see its content'.
'And that's not just true for text, audio, video, location sharing are all end to end encrypted. So no one sees your content, not hackers, not governments, not even us.'
Mr Zuckerberg added that social media should offer 'simple intimate spaces where you have complete confidence that what you say and do is private and have clear control over who you are communicating with.'
'You shouldn't have to worry that what you say or share is going to come back to hurt you later,' he said.
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