Security News > 2022 > July > Tech world may face huge fines if it doesn't scrub CSAM from encrypted chats

Tech companies could be fined $25 million - or ten percent of their global annual revenue - if they don't build suitable mechanisms to scan for child sex abuse material in end-to-end encrypted messages and an amended UK law is passed.

The proposed update to the Online Safety bill [PDF], currently working its way through Parliament, states that British and foreign providers of a "Regulated user-to-user service" must report child sexual exploitation and abuse content to the country's National Crime Agency.

Which way it's implemented, the British government, or what's left of it after a ministerial revolt against Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week, wants encrypted communications to be screened for CSEA material, and has amended its Online Safety bill to that effect.

"The Online Safety Bill sets a clear legal duty to prevent, identify, and remove child sexual abuse content, irrespective of the technologies they use. Nobody can sensibly deny that this is a moral imperative."

"If end-to-end encryption is implemented without the relevant safety mitigations in place, this will become much harder. It will significantly reduce tech companies' and law enforcement's ability to detect child sexual abuse happening online. This is obviously unacceptable," she said.

The Online Safety bill also attempts to tackle disinformation by getting social networks to filter out state-made interference, and reduce the distribution of stolen information for the purposes of undermining democracy.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/07/07/uk_online_safety_bill_chat_scanning/