Facebook turns down Attorney General's request for access to its messaging products

That would be a gift to hackers, criminals and repressive regimes, Facebook believes

Facebook has turned down Attorney General William Barr ' s request to provide US law-enforcement agencies with backdoor access to the company ' s encrypted messaging products, including WhatsApp and Messenger.

In a letter sent to Barr, WhatsApp and Messenger heads Will Cathcart and Stan Chudnovsky said that providing such access into Facebook ' s messaging products would be a gift to "hackers, criminals and repressive regimes."

"People ' s private messages would be less secure and the real winners would be anyone seeking to take advantage of that weakened security. That is not something we are prepared to do," the Facebook executives wrote, according to CNN.

The company ' s response came ahead of a Senate hearing on Tuesday about the benefits and risks of encryption, where representatives from both Apple and Facebook testified.

In October, senior government officials from the US, UK and Australia sent an open letter to Facebook, requesting the company halt its plans to introduce end-to-end encryption in its messaging products. The officials also urged the social network to enable government agencies "to obtain lawful access to content in a readable and usable format."

They argued that in absence of backdoor access, investigative agencies would lose access to critical evidence, including reports about child sexual exploitation.

"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 read.

"This puts our citizens and societies at risk by severely eroding a company ' s ability to detect and respond to illegal content and activity, such as child sexual exploitation and abuse, terrorism, and foreign adversaries ' attempts to undermine democratic values and institutions, preventing the prosecution of offenders and safeguarding of victims."

Earlier in July, 'Five Eyes' member countries also called for tech firms to help government agencies by providing them with special access to WhatsApp and other encrypted communications. The group warned that failing to do so would put lives of thousands of people at risk.

GCHQ suggested that tech firms should develop technology to quietly add an intelligence agent to conversations or group chats.

At the Senate hearing on Tuesday, Chairman Lindsey Graham told Facebook and Apple executives that while he appreciates the fact that unauthorised individuals "cannot hack into" his phone, he is worried about the fact that encrypted messaging feature also provides a "safe haven" for people involved in crimes and child exploitation.

Jay Sullivan, Facebook ' s director of messaging privacy, told senators that Facebook believes American companies must lead the world in the area of encrypted messaging. If that doesn ' t happen, foreign companies will eventually provide the same services to customers, and they won ' t be very co-operative with American law-enforcement agencies.