The governments and business are being urged by European Police Chiefs to act quickly to protect public safety on social media.
End-to-end encryption is one of the privacy protections that are now being implemented to prevent digital corporations from viewing any offense that takes place on their platforms. The most serious crimes, like child sexual abuse, human trafficking, drug smuggling, killings, economic crimes, and acts of terrorism, will no longer be prevented or prosecuted by law enforcement through the use of this evidence in investigations.
The declaration, which was backed by the European Police Chiefs and Europol, was released today, coinciding with the beginning of the rollout of end-to-end encryption throughout Meta’s messaging platform.
Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol, stated: “Crime is moving online, making our homes more dangerous than our streets. We need this digital environment to be secure in order to protect our people and society. IT businesses have a societal duty to provide a more secure atmosphere so that justice and law enforcement can carry out their duties. Law enforcement’s inability to gather evidence will mean that victims of crime will not be shielded from harm in our society.”
At an unofficial gathering of European Chiefs of Police in London on April 18, organized by the National Crime Agency, a Joint Declaration was reached. Along with Europol’s Executive Director, all EU Member State and Schengen Associated Country Police Chiefs were invited.
Earlier in the week, Catherine De Bolle had a strategic meeting with Graeme Biggar, the director of the UK National Crime Agency, on cooperation between Europol and the UK after the UK’s exit from the European Union.
