*Shocked Face*
WhatsApp, the emoji crammed messaging app that, for millennials at least, filled the gap between text messages and MSN messenger, could be about to reach it’s futuristic peak in just a matter of weeks.
The threat of extinction comes in the form of new laws that are expected to be laid upon social media and online messaging services.
Known on the streets as ‘The Snoopers Charter,’ and by sensible people as the ‘Investigatory Powers Bill’, the changes would allow the government to ban instant messaging apps that refuse to remove end-to-end encryption in their software.
Which basically means – if your product makes it impossible for anybody spying (like the government) to read your messages, it’d be breaking the law.
Bad news for apps like WhatsApp, Snapchat and even Apple’s iMessage, which all scramble and encode communications between devices.
The move, something which David Cameron has expressed an interest in, comes as a reaction to the recent spate of terrorist attacks, which could have been covertly arranged via messaging services like WhatsApp.
Speaking earlier this year the PM said: “In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?”
“My answer to that questions is: ‘No, we must not’.”
