Meta Internal Warning: We are going to do a bad thing, Meta official’s warning on messenger encryption comes out

News India Live, Digital Desk: A new legal problem has arisen for Meta. Documents made public during an ongoing court case in New Mexico, USA, have revealed that Meta’s top executives themselves had described the decision to encrypt Facebook Messenger as ‘irresponsible’ and ‘dangerous’. In internal chats, executives had warned that this step taken in the name of privacy would destroy the company’s ability to protect children and prevent terrorism. “This is so irresponsible”: Monica Bickert’s sharp comment According to the court filing, in March 2019, when Mark Zuckerberg was about to announce the encryption decision, Meta’s head of content policy Monica Bickert shared her concerns with colleagues. Strong warning: Bickert wrote, “We are going to do a bad thing as a company. This is deeply irresponsible.” Threat to Security: He further said that the company is telling “gross misstatements” about security, because Meta itself will not be able to detect objectionable messages from its own systems after encryption. Estimate of 65% drop in DETECTION after encryption. Court documents include an internal report of Meta’s own safety team. There is also mention of the report, which presents shocking figures: Child Exploitation: The team had estimated that if Messenger was encrypted, the reporting related to Child Exploitation would fall from 1.84 crores to only 64 lakhs i.e. a direct loss of 65%. Unseen Crimes: The company had admitted that because of encryption they could help the police in reporting 152 cases of terrorism and 9 cases of school shootings. You will not be able to alert about threats. Meta’s clarification: “We have added new safety features.” Responding to this revelation, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said that it was because of these concerns raised in 2019 that the company delayed the encryption rollout. According to Stone, Meta developed several new security features before implementing messenger encryption in 2023, such as preventing unknown adults from sending messages to minors. Blocking and monitoring suspicious accounts. Context of the Court CaseThis case is part of a lawsuit filed against Meta by the Attorney General of New Mexico. The allegation is that Meta declared its platform to be safe for children, while knowing that its decisions were weakening the safety checks (moderation).