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WhatsApp says it would rather be blocked in the UK than undermine its encrypted-messaging system, if required to do so under the Online Safety Bill.

Its head, Will Cathcart, said it would refuse to comply if asked to weaken the privacy of encrypted messages.

The app Signal previously said it could stop providing services in the UK if the bill required it to scan messages.

The government said it is possible to have both privacy and child safety.

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging platform in the UK, used by more than seven in 10 adults who are online, according to communication regulator Ofcom.

End-to-end encryption scrambles messages so even the company running the service cannot view the contents.

But critics of the Online Safety Bill say it grants Ofcom the power to require private encrypted-messaging apps and other services to adopt "accredited technology" to identify and remove child-abuse material.

Undermining the privacy of WhatsApp messages in the UK would do so for all users, Mr Cathcart said.

"Our users all around the world want security - 98% of our users are outside the UK, they do not want us to lower the security of the product," he said. And the app would rather accept being blocked in the UK.

"We've recently been blocked in Iran, for example. We've never seen a liberal democracy do that," he added.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64863448