Apple Warns It Will Remove iMessage And FaceTime If Rules Are Broken: All Details – News18

Apple has raised a stern warning this week which could have a serious impact on the consumers in the UK. The company says that it would remove its services like iMessage and FaceTime if the end-to-end encryption rules are broken to offer a backdoor channel to access the content.

The discussion regarding loosening encryption is part of the new Online Safety Bill in the UK and companies like Apple, WhatsApp and Signal have shown their displeasure about the terms of this new rule. The UK government claims that having control over encrypted material will help its law enforcement agencies to track messages for child abuse and other illegal content.

And understandably, Apple has voiced its concern with the new rule and how it would prefer to stop offering its privacy services in the region, rather than breaking the encryption of its messaging apps. The company would remove apps like iMessage and FaceTime for users in the region, as it cannot accommodate these policies for one country, while keeping the messages behind e2e standards for other markets.

Breaking encryption can have disastrous consequences for the consumers, and Apple is hoping that the government in the UK would revisit its approach towards online safety and keep the essentials of the industry intact.

Losing iMessage, WhatsApp and Signal for millions of UK consumers is not a low-key development and people would surely want to understand the reasons for the government to stick to its original plan of removing the privacy-centric features of these platforms. WhatsApp has also been stern in its approach towards privacy and the Meta-owned messaging platform continues to go against regimes in different parts of the world to preserve its identity in the market.

If the law does mandate them to break encryption, expect more services to withdraw their business from the country, which sees the consumers as the biggest losers, and also the government losing out on millions pumped in by these companies in their economies.