December 11, 2023
Press
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In line with the UK’s Online Safety Bill requirements, Whatsapp may face a ban in the UK in line with encryption regulations.
Due to the UK making up just a minuscule 2% of Whatsapp’s global users, the platform stands firmly by its decision not to adhere to the bill, arguing that the UK audience is not a big enough reason to reduce their security universally.
WhatsApp Chief Will Cathcart stated “The reality is, our users all around the world want security. 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.”
The issue lies with the platform's “end-to-end” encryption, the feature which gives users full privacy within messaging, whereby no one but the recipients of a communication can decrypt it.
The guarantee of fully-rounded security is perhaps the most appealing feature of the service to the everyday user. However, law enforcement and parliament have their backs up over the fact that Whatsapp is unable to retrieve, intercept or monitor any messaging from their own platform, therefore unable to comply with police requests and thus breaching the imminent Online Safety Bill.
If Whatsapp refuse to adhere to the bill, Meta could be fined up to 4% of its annual turnover and the platform may have to reconsider its business in the UK.
We don’t fancy taking our chats to iMessage, or perhaps to rogue chat territories further afield, but what options do we have as the 2% minority?
Silicon Valley Bank just had the second-largest bank collapse in the US and was truly on its arse until HSBC swooped in to save its UK business, just this morning. Here’s what you need to know.
The US bank’s week from hell began on Wednesday when it surprised investors with news that it needed to raise $2.25 billion to shore up its balance sheet. Sure. Small change indeed.
Following their request to raise funds, a whopping withdrawal of $42 billion in deposits was incurred, bringing the bank to its knees with impending insolvency which would have left customers with only deposits worth up to £85,000 ($100,000) — or £170,000 ($200,000) for joint accounts — guaranteed.
SVB had previously built a decent reputation, growing alongside the tech sector, but hysteria spread like wildfire from within and in turn, saw the collapse and closure of the bank by Friday.
In came HSBC, who after a weekend of incredibly concerned politicians, investors and tech firms that no longer had the stability of funds to cover staffing and operations expenses, were put at ease at last.
So how much does it cost to save a $7bn sinking ship? Well, just £1, actually.
In a statement, HSBC CEO Noel Quinn said the acquisition meant that “SVB UK customers can continue to bank as usual, safe in the knowledge that their deposits are backed by the strength, safety and security of HSBC.”
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the platform has been all over the shop. So it’s no surprise that Meta has just announced that they’re developing their own ‘text-based’ platform. Competition? Coincidence? We think not.
Although all of this is very much in the early stages of development, the proposed plans mirror very closely the functionality and initial draw Twitter once had. Minus Musk from the equation and we’re sure they’re onto something.
Meta has confirmed the project to Platformer via the following statement:
“We’re exploring a standalone decentralised social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.”
Now the interesting point to take from this is that Meta is exploring a decentralised social platform. In short; decentralised social networks rely on an expanded web of individual servers, which puts the onus on users to manage their own data, and set their own rules within different communities and elements across the platform, rather than one overseeing, data-guzzling mega-boss kind of thing.
For any tech-savvy individual, this may come as a walk in the park, however navigating a new social platform’s operating system is hardly common knowledge and the complexities of these processes or responsibilities are likely to be harder for the average user to understand.
We’re keen to see how the project develops but there’s sure work to be done to make the platform as accessible as its prior successor once was.
