WhatsApp could vanish from UK mobile phones amid a row over the proposed online safety bill.
The tech giant says it would sooner leave the UK than comply with the legislation it believes "compromises" the privacy of all users and could allow Ofcom to scan people's private messages.
The proposed set of laws aims to protect children and laws online and make social media companies more responsible for user safety. Ministers have been warned that time is running out to make an amicable resolution with WhatsApp, as reports the Guardian.
WhatsApp claims the bill does not protect end-to-end encryption, a method of secure communication that prevents anyone but a sender and recipient from seeing messages.
Messages on WhatsApp are secured with this technology and the firm has previously said it would sooner leave the UK than risk the security of its other users.
"Ninety-eight per cent of our users are outside the UK," WhatsApp head Will Cathcart told the Guardian in March.
"They do not want us to lower the security of the product, and just as a straightforward matter, it would be an odd choice for us to choose to lower the security of the product in a way that would affect those 98% of users."
WhatsApp, Signal, and a coalition of providers voiced their concerns in an open letter released last month.
Their letter reads: "The bill provides no explicit protection for encryption and if implemented as written, could empower Ofcom to try to force the proactive scanning of private messages on end-to-end encrypted communication services, nullifying the purpose of end-to-end encryption as a result and compromising the privacy of all users."
The bill is currently making its way through the House of Lords where members have warned the Government to take the threat of WhatsApp's departure seriously.
"These services, such as WhatsApp, will potentially leave the UK," Claire Fox told the House of Lords last week. "This is not like threatening to storm off. It is not done in any kind of pique in that way. In putting enormous pressure on these platforms to scan communications, we must remember that they are global platforms."
She continued: "They have a system that works for billions of people all around the world. A relatively small market such as the UK is not something for which they would compromise their billions of users around the world."
A Home Office spokesperson told the Guardian: "We support strong encryption, but this cannot come at the cost of public safety. Tech companies have a moral duty to ensure they are not blinding themselves and law enforcement to the unprecedented levels of child sexual abuse on their platforms.
"The online safety bill in no way represents a ban on end-to-end encryption, nor will it require services to weaken encryption.
"Where it is the only effective, proportionate and necessary action available, Ofcom will be able to direct platforms to use accredited technology, or make best endeavours to develop new technology, to accurately identify child sexual abuse content, so it can be taken down and the despicable predators brought to justice."
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