During a podcast appearance following his meeting with Sir Keir Starmer at the White House, President Trump was asked for his impressions of the UK’s Prime Minister. “A different type” to Boris Johnson, he observed – surely one of the greatest compliments any politician could hope to receive. Then, in characteristic Trumpian fashion, he flipped the interview dynamic and began quizzing the host instead.
The interviewer, having already made a few pointed remarks about Starmer’s adenoidal vocal delivery (“Beautiful voice; beautiful, the whole thing,” Trump interjects, drily), soon steered the conversation towards a more serious issue: Starmer’s claim that Britain would have free speech “for a very, very long time”. A bold assertion given his Government’s dismal record on the issue, of course, particularly its recent attempt to force Apple to create a global encryption backdoor, handing UK law enforcement access to user data worldwide.
“We told them, you can’t do this,” Trump said. “It’s incredible. It’s something you hear about in China.”
As first reported by the Washington Post last month, UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper issued the legally binding order in the form of a Technical Capability Notice (TCN). Unlike a traditional data request, a TCN does not demand access to specific user information. Instead, it compels a company to create the means for the Government to access it in the future. In this case, it could mean dismantling Apple’s end-to-end encryption protections, which are currently so robust that even Apple itself cannot bypass them. That encryption is what ensures our messages, photos, files and personal data remain private.
The implications of this extend far beyond Britain. If Apple caves to the demands of the UK government, other governments, including authoritarian regimes like Russian, Iran and China, will demand the same access. Once a backdoor exists, Apple will no longer be able to say it lacks the ability to decrypt the data of its customers. It will merely be a question of who gets access.
In other words, the US administration is right to be alarmed. If encryption backdoors become the norm, the right to communicate securely, without fear of surveillance or reprisal, will be permanently undermined. This dangerous overreach, issued under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (dubbed a ‘Snooper’s Charter’ by civil liberties groups), sets a precedent that should concern anyone who values privacy and free expression. Whatever one thinks of the 47th President of the United States of America, his comparison of Britain to China in this respect is hardly far-fetched. If governments can compel tech companies to break encryption, digital privacy risks becoming a privilege reserved for the ideologically compliant – not an inalienable right.
You can listen to a clip of Trump’s podcast here – it’s beautiful; beautiful, the whole thing.
Dr Frederick Attenborough is the Executive Director of Communications and Research at the Free Speech Union.
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