CEO of secure messaging service Element Matthew Hodgson has warned that the Online Safety Bill currently passing through parliament poses a huge threat to journalists and their sources.
The proposed Online Safety Bill would allow the government to scan private messages through a backdoor into secure messaging apps such Element, Whatsapp and Signal. The primary goal is to target criminals and terrorists. But such apps are also used as a relatively secure way for journalists to keep in touch with whistleblowers.
The legislation is currently being debated in the House of Lords.
Hodgson warned that “once the scanning capabilities exist, they could be applied to search for anything”. Law enforcement bodies could use technology to scan messaging services for keywords which could easily see journalists’ communications accessed.
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Hodgson said if the law is passed in its current form, Element and others apps would have no reason to continue to offer their services in the UK as they would no longer be secure.
He said: “Everybody [in the secure app industry] agrees this is a terrible idea. When you talk to people in the security space, everybody agrees it’s a terrible idea, because it is the sort of attacks we are designing our security against.”
He said: “It’s a genuine slippery slope The current legislation says you may have to scan only for child abuse content and potentially terrorism. However, having put that infrastructure in place not only can the bad guys hijack it but future governments have this incredible power at their fingertips that they can use to scan for anything they might like.
“Let’s assume a 9-11 style equivalent happens in the UK, suddenly the infrastructure is in place for the government to do a kneejerk reaction on that and say we need to scan much more across the board. Before you know it you have opened the floodgates to a huge surveillance thing, just like the Stasi had in Germany.”
In a survey of 2,000 people conducted by Opinium for Element some 83% of UK citizens said they believe secure messaging apps should have the highest level of security, this compared with 95% for personal email and 65% for work email.
Some 44% said conversations between journalists and their sources should always be private.
Hodgson said: “If the Online Safety Bill goes through, every online conversation could end up being surveilled, placing us on the same stage as other governments we know monitor their citizens’ conversations – China, Russia and North Korea.”
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