WhatsApp faces UK ban within weeks

Messaging your mates on WhatsApp could soon be a thing of the past.

The popular app is facing a total UK ban as new laws being rushed through would stop people sending any form of encrypted messages.

WhatsApp, iMessage and Snapchat currently scramble communications between users and if they dont conform they will face a ban.

Speaking earlier this year David Cameron warned: In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?

My answer to that question is no we must not.

If I am Prime Minister, I will make sure it is a comprehensive piece of legislation that makes sure we do not allow terrorist safe spaces to communicate with each other.

And the controversial law, nicknamed the snoopers charter, could be in place by the Autumn.

Home Secretary Theresa May, has warned that the Government will push the legislation through – with the recent terrorist atrocities in Tunisia and France forcing the government to act quickly.

The laws would mean online services such as WhatsApp, Google, Facebook and Apple would be forced to hand over messages, sent by users, to government security agencies such as MI5.

It is currently unclear what the full extent of the powers will be, however many are already condemning the bill.

Executive director of The Open Rights Group Jim Killock told the BBC… The government is signalling that it wants to press ahead with increased powers of data collection and retention for the police and GCHQ, spying on everyone, whether suspected of a crime or not.

This is the return of the snoopers charter, even as the ability to collect and retain data gets less and less workable.

And Liberty, which campaigns for civil liberties and human rights in the UK added…We take no issue with the use of intrusive surveillance powers per se - targeted surveillance can play an important part in preventing and detecting serious crime.

But the current regime just does not provide sufficient safeguards to ensure that such surveillance is conducted lawfully, and in a necessary and proportionate way.