The U.K. government finally acknowledges that a component of the Online Safety Bill that would force tech companies to scan data and messages for child porn images can't be implemented without violating the privacy rights of all internet users and undermining the data encryption tools that keep our information safe.
And so the government is backing down—for now—on what's been called the "spy clause." Using the justification of fighting the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), part of the Online Safety Bill would have required online platforms to create "backdoors" that the British government could use to scan messages between social media users. The law also would've allowed the government to punish platforms or sites that implement end-to-end encryption and prevent the government from accessing messages and data.