Ministers appear to have defused a row with tech companies over fears that the government would try to break into encrypted apps to search for child abuse material.
The messaging apps Signal and WhatsApp had threatened to either leave the UK or refuse to implement new laws that they believe undermined the privacy of their users.
The Online Safety Bill, which is going through parliament, gives the regulator Ofcom the power to order tech firms to implement technology that identifies child sex abuse material on their platforms.
● Online safety bill ‘opens door to surveillance’, tech giants warn
However, communication on Signal, WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage are end-to-end encrypted, meaning that only the sender and receiver can see the message, not the companies themselves.