- A bill in Florida could force social media platforms to create encryption deadlines for the police
- The “Use of Social Media” bill would prevent minors from using or accessing all ephemeral messaging features
- Privacy experts warn that these requirements will make young people less safe online instead
Florida is considering a bill which could force all social media platforms which allow the accounts of minors to provide a stolen encryption door for the police.
The bill will also prevent minors from using or accessing ephemeral messaging features, which means messages that disappear after visualization, including WhatsApp Show once. Social media suppliers will also be required to Give parents or miners to all messages published by their children.
Known as the bill “Use of social media” (SB 868 / HB 743), the proposal is the last legal effort to protect the security of children online. However, confidentiality experts warn that such requirements will make young people less safe instead.
“Ask for the impossible”
As digital rights experts from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wrote: “The bill is not only invasive in confidentiality, it also requires the impossible.”
Encryption is used by the best VPN and encrypted VPN messaging applications to keep the activities online for private users. WhatsApp and Signal use end -to -end encryption to blur the data in an illegible form to make sure that only your planned recipients can read your messages.
According to their own words, Florida legislators want to force “social media platforms to provide a mechanism to decipher encryption from start to finish when the police obtain a summons”.
Cryptographers and other experts, however, have long warned that what is called a stolen door of encryption cannot be implemented without undermining the security of the system. Indeed, in addition to the possibility of improper use of the authorities, the malicious actors will end up being able to exploit this entry point.
Florida wishes to introduce such requirements specifically for providers who allow minors to open an account in order to improve the safety of children online. However, the EFF experts believe that he will really do exactly the opposite result.
“This would probably lead to companies not at all offering an end to end less Online security, “they said.
The bill “Use of Florida’s social media” is a poorly advised attempt at end -to -end encryption which requires the impossible. He should not be allowed to move forward. https://t.co/axikwx0hj7April 13, 2025
Another litigious point is the plan to prohibit minor account holders from using or accessing messages designed to disappear or self-destruct “.
Again, according to the EFF experts, the targeting of this functionality would only end up harming everyone’s privacy, without doing anything to protect children. Even ephemeral messages can be saved and reported if necessary.
The “Social Media” bill seeks to extend the scope of the Florida Social Networks (HB 3), which entered into force at the start of the year. Among other things, the law has introduced compulsory age check checks for access to equipment deemed harmful to minors and a ban for the opening of a social media account for children under the age of 14.
The HB 3 law was struck by a complaint in October, which has shown concerns about the implications of freedom of expression. The trial is still underway at the time of the editorial staff.
For EFF Expert is obvious – legislators should reject the bill and focus on alternative protections, such as better laws on consumer privacy and digital literature at school.
“The minors, as well as those around them, deserve the right to speak privately without listening to the police.”
A global push
Florida is only the last government which pushes better access to the police from encrypted data. The United Kingdom, the EU and even Switzerland – formerly considered as a confidentiality paradise – envisage a form of stolen encryption at the time of writing.
However, the technological industry does not seem willing to weaken the safety of their systems. Apple decided to kill its iCloud E2E functionality in the United Kingdom for not having built a stolen door and now defies the United Kingdom in court. While Signal has more than once that the company prefers to leave the market than to undermine encryption.
