WhatsApp cannot read messages sent over its own service, and so cannot comply with law enforcement requests to hand over messages, or pleas to actively monitor communications for child protection or antiterror purposes. “End-to-end” encryption is used in messaging services to prevent anyone but the recipients of a communication from being able to decrypt it. They do not want us to lower the security of the product, and just as a straightforward matter, it would be an odd choice for us to choose to lower the security of the product in a way that would affect those 98% of users.” “Ninety-eight per cent of our users are outside the UK. “The reality is, our users all around the world want security,” said Cathcart. But we’ve never seen a liberal democracy do that.

We’ve recently been blocked in Iran, for example.

Some countries have chosen to block it: that’s the reality of shipping a secure product. There isn’t a way to change it in just one part of the world. He said: “It’s a remarkable thing to think about.

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