Scott Ikeda reports:
The most controversial portion of the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Bill appears to be dead in the water, as Ofcom has publicly admitted that the technology to create backdoors into encrypted messaging without breaking it does not exist and that the “spy clause” will not be enforced when the bill becomes law.
The Online Safety Bill remains otherwise intact, however, and the ministers involved with the issue appear to have not given up on the idea entirely. Minister Paul Scully said that companies will be directed to make their best efforts to develop technology to comply with the bill’s requirements for the monitoring and removal of child sexual abuse material from encrypted messaging platforms. The bill has not yet become law but is widely expected to before 2023 is out, with enforcement going into effect in mid-2024.
Read more at CPO Magazine.