How the NSPCC rigged its report on the dangers of end-to-end encryption
The NSPCC claims to have a delivered a ‘balanced’ report on the dangers of end-to-end encryption — but it was anything but ‘balanced’
Is Facebook making life easier for child abusers by introducing end-to-end encryption across all of its messaging services? That’s certainly the message that the UK’s Home Secretary and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) wanted to get out this week — and it worked, with even the more liberal end of the UK press, such as The Guardian, parroting the message without much question.
The NSPCC backed up its claims with a research paper, written by PA Consulting, entitled End-to-End Encryption — Understanding the impacts for child safety online.
The NSPCC claims the “balanced” report “collates the viewpoints of a broad range of stakeholders” so as to “raise understanding of the impact that ubiquitous end-to-end encryption would have on children’s online safety”.
In fact, as I will show, this hugely imbalanced report encapsulates a very narrow set of stakeholders, many of whom have long fought against end-to-end…
