Meta encryption weakens safety and ability to keep child users safe, VGT says

The Virtual Global Taskforce or VGT, is an international alliance of 15 law enforcement agencies to tackle the threat of child sexual abuse, CSA. the alliance said in part: "The VGT first issued its first position statement on end-to-end encryption or E2EE, in 2021. This statement highlighted the devastating impact E2EE can have on law enforcement’s ability to identify, pursue and prosecute offenders, when implemented in a way that affects the detection of CSA on industry platforms. It is important to update the VGT position on E2EE in the context of impending design choices by industry. As outlined in our previous statement, there is no doubt that encryption plays an important role in safeguarding privacy, however this must be balanced with the importance of safeguarding children online…The announced implementation of E2EE on META platforms Instagram and Facebook is an example of a purposeful design choice that degrades safety systems and weakens the ability to keep child users safe. META is currently the leading reporter of detected child sexual abuse to NCMEC. The VGT has not yet seen any indication from META that any new safety systems implemented post-E2EE will effectively match or improve their current detection methods…The VGT calls for all industry partners to fully appreciate the impact of implementing system design decisions that result in blindfolding themselves to CSA occurring on their platforms, or reduces their capacity to identify CSA and keep children safe. It is time to confront these concerns and make tangible steps towards possible solutions that we know exist" said the alliance in part. Reference Link