Whittaker also discussed the UK's Online Safety Bill, stating that Signal would never build backdoors into their end-to-end encryption and would leave the UK if required to do so. She criticized the European Commission's proposal to recast criminal law rules around Child Sexual Abuse Material (EU-CSAM) as dangerous and unworkable. Whittaker also responded to recent controversies involving Elon Musk, Pavel Durov, and OpenAI, and revealed that she will be spending the next six months in Europe to focus on Signal's European market and connections.
Key takeaways:
- Meredith Whittaker, President of Signal, expresses concern over the concentration of power in the AI industry, particularly in the hands of a few US-based companies, and its implications for Europe.
- Whittaker criticizes the tech industry's obsession with AI-driven deepfakes and the role of major social media platforms in spreading disinformation.
- She strongly opposes the UK's Online Safety Bill's potential requirement for tech companies to build backdoors into their end-to-end encryption, stating that Signal would rather leave the UK than comply.
- Whittaker plans to spend the next six months in Paris to focus on Signal's European market and connections, and to write a book about her work in the tech industry over the last 20 years.