TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Management shake-up at TymeBank – including a new CEO

      24 May 2022

      Standard Bank CEO apologises for weekend downtime

      24 May 2022

      South Africa fifth in Africa for blockchain funding

      24 May 2022

      Hein Engelbrecht to lead Mustek on interim basis

      24 May 2022

      Datatec in talks over Analysys Mason unit

      24 May 2022
    • World

      Terra collapse triggers $83-billion DeFi slump

      24 May 2022

      Zuckerberg sued in personal capacity over Cambridge Analytica

      24 May 2022

      Is the end of the bitcoin winter nigh?

      24 May 2022

      Zoom leaps higher on upbeat forecast

      24 May 2022

      Michael Dell becomes kingmaker in Broadcom, VMware deal

      23 May 2022
    • In-depth

      Bernie Fanaroff – the scientist who put African astronomy on the map

      23 May 2022

      Chip giant ASML places big bets on a tiny future

      20 May 2022

      Elon Musk is becoming like Henry Ford – and that’s not a good thing

      17 May 2022

      Stablecoins wend wobbly way into the unknown

      17 May 2022

      The standard model of particle physics may be broken

      11 May 2022
    • Podcasts

      The rewarding and lucrative careers to be had in infosec

      23 May 2022

      Dean Broadley on why product design at Yoco is an evolving art

      18 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E02 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 2’

      17 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E01 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 1’

      10 May 2022

      Llew Claasen on how exchange controls are harming SA tech start-ups

      2 May 2022
    • Opinion

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022

      Cash is still king … but not for much longer

      31 March 2022

      Icasa on the role of TV white spaces and dynamic spectrum access

      31 March 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Sections»Information security»UK takes aim at Facebook again over end-to-end encryption

    UK takes aim at Facebook again over end-to-end encryption

    Information security By Agency Staff11 March 2021
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Alexander Shatov/Unsplash

    The UK’s digital minister warned he had “very grave concerns” about Facebook’s plans to expand end-to-end encryption across all user communications, continuing a longstanding battle by the government against the US company’s messaging tools.

    Secretary of state for digital, culture, media & sport Oliver Dowden said both he and home secretary Priti Patel are speaking to Facebook “at all levels” about encryption, in a press conference on Wednesday.

    “End-to-end encryption cannot be a way of facilitating child abuse, and so on, and we’ve shared those grave concerns,” Dowden added. “We haven’t ruled out any steps to protect against those abuses.”

    End-to-end encryption cannot be a way of facilitating child abuse, and so on, and we’ve shared those grave concerns

    Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has promised to expand encryption messages beyond WhatsApp to all its apps by default, including Messenger and Instagram, a move which has met resistance from US, UK and Australian justice officials.

    The UK government has previously urged social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to tackle terror posts on their sites, and demanded access to encrypted messages. However, Dowden added that any legislative means to tackle the issue would not be in the forthcoming Online Safety Bill.

    Reshaping

    The UK. is currently reshaping its approach to tech companies following its departure from the European Union, and while attempting to limit the power of Big Tech, lawmakers are also pushing to relax listing rules to create bigger British start-ups. Officials are set to change stock exchange rules around blank-cheque firms as part of wide-ranging reforms to boost the attractiveness of London, while company founders will also be able to keep greater control when they list their businesses in the city.

    Dowden said he hopes these reforms will lure British entrepreneurs back from US capital markets, which offer more relaxed rules around share ownership and higher valuations. The UK is “looking to see how we can make it easier for tech to list, and in particular the founder question, which has been one of the big challenges”, said Dowden.

    Dowden also added that one of the world’s biggest tech deals remains under scrutiny. British officials have yet to break their silence over Nvidia’s US$40-billion takeover of British chip designer ARM Holdings six months after it was announced. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said in January it would investigate the deal.

    “Don’t take the fact that we’ve said nothing on it as being that we are not going to act, or indeed we are going to act,” said Dowden. “It is still very much under consideration.”

    Dowden has been canvassing British technology entrepreneurs. He met e-commerce business THG founder Matthew Moulding on Tuesday, and spoke to cybersecurity firm Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson on Wednesday. As evidence of a changing culture, he cited the so-called unicorn valuation of Starling Bank and Deliveroo’s decision to list in London.

    “This goes to the heart of one of the biggest challenges clearly that we face in the UK,” Dowden acknowledged. “There is always going to be a problem in the UK of scale. We are not a China or a US.”

    On Thursday, the minister announced that 2020 was a record year for venture capital funding in the UK, citing government analysis which showed that $15-billion had gone to tech companies — more than France and Germany combined.  — Reported by Thomas Seal, (c) 2021 Bloomberg LP

    ARM Holdings Facebok Facebook Messenger Mark Zuckerberg Messenger Nvidia Oliver Dowden Priti Patel top WhatsApp
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleApple tilts to the iPhone playbook for its upcoming car
    Next Article Drama at UK’s BT Group as South African chairman Du Plessis quits

    Related Posts

    Management shake-up at TymeBank – including a new CEO

    24 May 2022

    Standard Bank CEO apologises for weekend downtime

    24 May 2022

    South Africa fifth in Africa for blockchain funding

    24 May 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Generalists tend to outperform specialists when the going gets tough

    24 May 2022

    Vodacom champions innovation acceleration in Africa

    23 May 2022

    Kyocera answers top 10 questions on enterprise content management

    23 May 2022
    Opinion

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

    19 April 2022

    How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

    8 April 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.