UK accuses Meta of empowering child sexual abusers with encryption rollout

Tech firm says it has developed robust' safety measures after home secretary and campaigners condemn move

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has been accused by the UK government of empowering child sexual abusers after the tech firm began rolling out the automatic encryption of all messages on its Facebook and Messenger platforms.

The home secretary, James Cleverly, described the move as a significant step back" for child safety after Meta said it would introduce end-to-end encryption on the apps. The move means that only the sender and receiver of messages on the platforms will be able to access their content.