NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO:
Meta’s leadership has moved forward with a controversial initiative to implement end-to-end encryption across its messaging services linked to Facebook and Instagram, despite internal warnings regarding potential repercussions for child safety. Internal documents, recently revealed in a New Mexico state court case, highlight concerns raised by key executives about the implications of this encryption on the company’s ability to report child exploitation incidents to law enforcement.
In a candid exchange from March 2019, Monika Bickert, Meta’s head of content policy, expressed her apprehensions, stating, “We are about to do a bad thing as a company. This is so irresponsible.” This sentiment emerged as CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepared to publicly announce the encryption plan.
The lawsuit, initiated by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, accuses Meta of enabling predators to access underage users, facilitating connections that could lead to real-world abuse and human trafficking. This trial marks a significant moment, being the first of its kind against Meta to reach a jury, amidst a backdrop of increasing litigation and regulatory scrutiny concerning the safety of young users on its platforms.
Alongside New Mexico’s allegations, a coalition of over 40 attorneys general is pursuing claims that Meta’s products contribute to mental health issues among youth. Additionally, various school districts have filed lawsuits, and Zuckerberg recently testified in a separate case involving a teenager allegedly harmed by the company’s offerings.
Concerns Over Encryption
The New Mexico filings specifically challenge Meta’s claims regarding the safety of its encryption strategy for Messenger, which was first announced in 2019 and later extended to Instagram direct messages. While end-to-end encryption is a common privacy feature in messaging applications, child safety advocates, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), argue that its integration into public social networks poses significant risks, particularly for children.
Internal communications from Meta reveal that senior safety executives shared these concerns. While Zuckerberg publicly asserted that the company was addressing the risks associated with encryption, Bickert and others internally voiced their discontent. Bickert noted, “I’m not very invested in helping him sell this, I must say,” emphasizing that with encryption, the company would lose the ability to proactively identify and report cases of child exploitation and terrorist activities.
In a briefing document from February 2019, estimates indicated that if Messenger had been encrypted, Meta’s reporting of child nudity and sexual exploitation imagery to NCMEC would have plummeted from 18.4 million to approximately 6.4 million—a staggering 65% reduction. Further updates revealed that Meta would have been unable to provide proactive data to law enforcement in numerous child exploitation and terrorism cases.
In response to inquiries, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone acknowledged the concerns raised by Bickert and Antigone Davis, Meta’s Global Head of Safety. He stated that these apprehensions prompted the development of additional safety features prior to the launch of encrypted messaging on Facebook and Instagram in 2023. While messages are encrypted by default, users retain the ability to report inappropriate content for review and potential law enforcement referral.
Stone emphasized that the concerns from 2019 were instrumental in shaping the new safety measures designed to detect and prevent abuse within encrypted chats. Among these initiatives are special accounts for underage users, which restrict adult users from contacting minors they do not know.
Safety executives have specifically highlighted the risks of children being groomed on Meta’s semi-public platforms and subsequently exploited through private messaging services. Davis articulated these concerns in a 2019 email, noting that Facebook facilitates connections between predators and children, allowing for a seamless transition to Messenger. In contrast, she pointed out that WhatsApp, which is already encrypted, does not have the same social connectivity features, thereby posing fewer risks.
