DOJ says Facebook's encryption plan will hinder child sex crimes investigations

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Officials with the U.S. Department of Justice held a summit Friday to speak out against Facebook's plans for a new encryption system that the federal government has said would threaten public safety.

Facebook has announced plans to use what's known as end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp and private messaging on Facebook and Instagram.

It's a system in which only the people involved in the communications can access the messages.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr and other DOJ officials said it would hinder law enforcement's ability to investigate child sex crimes, terrorism, and organized crime online.

"Making our virtual world more secure should not come at the expense of making us more vulnerable in the real world," Barr said.

Barr wrote a letter to Facebook urging the company not to use the system.

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"Companies should not deliberately design their systems to preclude any form of access to content, even for preventing or investigating the most serious crimes," the letter said.

Barr said investigators would only have access to the electronic information after going through the proper legal channels, including getting a warrant and approval from a judge.

"Law enforcement is not seeking a back door," Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen said. "It's seeking a front door.

Facebook has defended its plan and released this statement:

"We believe people have the right to have a private conversation online, wherever they are in the world. As the US and UK governments acknowledge, the CLOUD Act allows for companies to provide available information when they receive valid legal requests and does not require companies to build back doors.

We respect and support the role law enforcement has in keeping people safe. Ahead of our plans to bring more security and privacy to our messaging apps, we are consulting closely with child safety experts, governments and technology companies and devoting new teams and sophisticated technology, so we can use all the information available to us to help keep people safe.

End-to-end encryption already protects the messages of over a billion people every day. It is increasingly used across the communications industry and in many other important sectors of the economy. We strongly oppose government attempts to build back doors because they would undermine the privacy and security of people everywhere."

Cox Media Group