WhatsApp Doesn't Want to Follow US Government Requests

Beginning last October, the authorities of the United States, Britain and Australia posted a letter on Facebook stopping the intention to embed encoding technology in its messaging service. Upon that request, WhatsApp flatly refused.

WhatsApp APAC Policy Director Clair Deevy said the platform would continue to implement an end-to-end encryption policy. This means that only people who send and receive can get or read messages.

And this is standard across all WhatsApp services. Whether it's text messages, voice and video calls.

"So we maintain our commitment. It is very important to maintain the privacy of the conversation," Clair said when met at the Ministry of Communication and Information, Thursday (11/07/2019).

"We will continue to do end to end encryption. We think privacy is very important and that sending messages between friends and family must be something that remains private," he said.

As is known in order to maintain privacy, end-to-end encryption or encryption on Facebook services has been disturbed. For this reason US, British and Australian officials have requested that law enforcement be able to access messages when investigating terrorists, child abuse, and other criminals.

The US Department of Justice has long disagreed with the encoding of messages because it is considered difficult for it against the criminals. The FBI had requested that Apple open an iPhone message belonging to a mass murder suspect in California, which was not granted by Apple.

"Companies should not design systems to avoid access to content, prevent the most serious criminal investigations. This exposes citizens to risk by reducing the company's ability to detect and respond to illegal content," wrote US Attorney General William Barr in his letter with British and Australian officials.