Q&A with Signal's Meredith Whittaker on why online child safety efforts risk mass surveillance, leaving the markets that demand weakening of encryption, more

Meredith Whittaker of Signal is pushing back hard against online child safety initiatives she says risk opening the door to mass surveillance. In a Bloomberg Q&A, Whittaker laid out her case that privacy isn't optional — it's foundational to a free society.

The core tension: governments pushing child safety measures that would require weakening encryption. Whittaker has signaled willingness to leave markets that demand exactly that. No compromise on the math that keeps messages private.

It's a familiar battle line. Policymakers frame it as protecting kids. Privacy advocates frame it as gutting the security infrastructure that protects everyone. Whittaker has spent years on this fight and shows no signs of backing down.

Signal remains one of the few major platforms drawing a hard line on end-to-end encryption, refusing to build in backdoors regardless of political pressure.