Can WhatsApp stop spreading misinformation without compromising encryption?

Nicolás Rivero
·7-min read
Can WhatsApp stop spreading misinformation without compromising encryption?

The Facebook-owned messaging platform faces competing calls to fact-check more content or protect privacy at all costs.

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  • Prince Philip pictured doing the washing up on a boat in previously unseen school photos

    The boat was a benefit for Gordonstoun pupils 'with no particular family home' to go to during breaks.

  • ‘It’s going very well’: Hope rises for Oxford’s malaria vaccine after success of Covid jab from same team

    Exclusive: Professor Adrian Hill says his team at the Jenner Institute are ‘very excited’ by the prospects of their vaccine, which enters into large-scale testing in Africa this month

  • Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory dies aged 52 from cancer

    Tributes have been paid to Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory who has died aged 52 from cancer. In a message posted on social media, Lewis said: “I’m heartbroken to announce that after an heroic battle with cancer, the beautiful and mighty woman that is Helen McCrory has died peacefully at home, surrounded by a wave of love from friends and family.” McCrory, who was awarded the OBE for services to drama in 2017, was probably best known for playing the fearsome matriarch Polly in crime drama Peaky Blinders but also had a critically acclaimed stage career winning plaudits for National Theatre roles in productions of Medea and Terence Rattigan’s post war drama The Deep Blue Sea.

  • Disabled woman says Duke of Edinburgh’s Award transformed her life

    Myah Richards, who has cerebral palsy, said doing the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award increased her confidence and spurred her on to do new things.

  • Prince Philip’s funeral in pictures: Queen bids farewell to her husband of 73 years

    The Queen will say a final goodbye to Prince Philip, her husband of more than seven decades, at a funeral on Saturday.

  • Prince Philip's great niece Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg: 'He was an idol to us'

    The historic family ties that prompted The Queen to invite German royalty Follow live updates from Prince Philip's funeral The Duke of Edinburgh's great niece, whose brother is in Windsor for his funeral on Saturday, has remembered Prince Philip as an "idol" for the younger generation of their family. Speaking from Munich, Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg said the Duke was a powerful role model to her and his "selflessness, lack of ego and sense of humour" will never be forgotten. Her tribute comes as the Queen prepares to say farewell to her husband of 73 years at Windsor Castle. "To all of us, he was an idol, he was somebody to look up to, we had enormous respect for him and it was always very exciting when he came to visit, and he came often," said Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. "And this has become clear to me in the week since he's died - the way he lived his life, his motto, which was an unwritten motto for us, this discipline, this selflessness, this lack of ego, but also his sense of humour always underlying all of that.

  • Sword-wielding man attacks police officer and severs his finger

    Shocking body-worn footage shows Anthony Browne, 63, wielding a sword.

  • Epstein's accusers can't challenge plea agreement shielding accomplices -ruling

    (Reuters) -A federal appeals court rejected a challenge by a Jeffrey Epstein accuser to an agreement not to prosecute the financier, and to shield his associates from criminal liability for aiding his sexual abuses. By a 7-4 vote, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled on Thursday that Courtney Wild and other accusers lacked standing under the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act to disturb Epstein's 2007 nonprosecution agreement, though they had been kept in the dark while it was being negotiated. Judges in the majority said they were "constrained" to rule against Wild, despite having "the profoundest sympathy for Ms. Wild and others like her, who suffered unspeakable horror at Epstein's hands, only to be left in the dark - and, so it seems, affirmatively misled - by government attorneys."

  • Latina grandmother assaulted on LA bus in anti-Asian attack

    A 70-year-old woman was getting off a bus in LA when another passenger dragged her to the other end of the vehicle and beat her, her son says

  • Puberty blockers for under-16s reviewed by NHS

    Puberty-blocker prescriptions for transgender children under 16 are set to be reviewed, NHS England has announced. The drugs are prescribed to some young people experiencing gender dysphoria - a "mismatch" between their biological sex and gender identity. NHS England said that it will establish a new independent review group to assess the prescription of the drugs for children under 16. The announcement comes following a High Court ruling in March, which concluded that parents can consent to the treatment on behalf of their child - although the judge added it may be that "additional safeguards" should be built into the decision-making process. Last month's case was brought after three high court judges had previously ruled that children under 16 were unlikely to be able to give informed consent for the treatment. That ruling, in December, followed a case brought against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust which provides England's only NHS specialist gender clinic for children. NHS England said its new processes and review group were being introduced on an "interim basis" while it awaits the outcome of a review into gender identity services led by Dr Hilary Cass OBE, former President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. In a statement on its website, NHS England said: "This [new] group will be comprised of health and care professionals with expertise in child development, neurodevelopment and mental health, assessing capacity and consent, and safeguarding processes." It added the review group would be a temporary measure as it awaits the outcome of Dr Cass's report to ensure any decision-making follows a "robust" process. Until the group is operational a requirement for a best interests court order, for new patients, will remain.

  • An independent Scotland could turn to Denmark for inspiration

    An independent Scotland could turn to Denmark for inspiration. Instead of looking south, campaigners are looking north, to the egalitarian models of small Nordic nations

  • How Meghan ensured she had a part in Prince Philip's funeral – with a handwritten note on wreath

    The Duchess of Sussex wrote the card attached to the wreath sent by her and Prince Harry to ensure that, in a small way, she played a part in the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral service. Meghan, who is heavily pregnant with the couple's second child, had hoped to attend the ceremony but was advised against travelling by her doctor. The 39-year-old was watching the funeral on television at home in Montecito, California. The Sussexes' tribute was among nine family wreaths laid in the Quire of St George's Chapel, propped against the stalls on each side of the Duke's coffin. Buckingham Palace aides declined to provide details of the other wreaths, saying they were private. But a source close to the Sussexes confirmed that theirs had been designed and handmade by Willow Crossley, a Cotswold florist known for her natural, rustic arrangements. The variety of locally sourced flowers, some of which were picked from the designer's garden, were chosen due to their particular significance.

  • Wife of British wrestling champion refused UK visa

    ‘It’s not just me, it’s many people they do this to. I don’t like to say it but the Home Office is treating people badly,’ Muhammad Mokaev tells The Independent

  • Face masks and social distancing to be scrapped at lockdown easing trial events

    Officials will establish which methods work best to minimise risk of transmission in larger crowds

  • Liam Williams vs Demetrius Andrade ring walks: What time will fight start in the UK?

    Everything you need to know ahead of tonight’s WBO world title bout

  • Frexit fears? Macron warned to learn lessons from UK ‘before it’s too late’

    Michel Barnier notes ‘social unrest’ in some parts of France over EU’s policies

  • Nation falls silent in memory of Duke of Edinburgh

    Philip’s coffin was carried on a custom-built Land Rover Defender hearse designed by the duke and modified over 16 years.

  • French medical academy wants to wait six months between Covid jabs

    France's Academy of Medicine has called for the delay between doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to be extended from six weeks to six months, in the case of the Pfizer and Moderna injections, in order to allow more people to get the first jab. Pushing the second injection back in the under-55 age bracket would "accelerate the vaccination campaign...and achieve herd immunity much faster with the same number of doses, while ensuring satisfactory individual protection", the National Academy of Medicine said in a statement on Thursday.The academy has no decision-making power in France, unlike the High Authority for Health (HAS), which can make such recommendations with the backing of the government. On Wednesday, the delay between the first two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which use new messenger RNA technology, was extended from 4 to six weeks."This will allow us to speed up the vaccination campaign without compromising public protection," Health Minister Olivier Véran explained to French weekly Journal du Dimanche.High-risk professionsThe Academy of Medicine said that, based on recent studies in the United States and United Kingdom, a single dose of the mRNA vaccine had been shown to provide very high level of protection against the coronavirus. With the more contagious British variant now the dominant strain in France, the academy said it made sense to delay second injections for those aged under 55 years with no history of immune deficiency, to allow more people in high-risk professions, such as teachers, to receive their first dose.In France, the only under-55s currently eligible for the vaccination are frontline priority workers (health workers, home care workers, firefighters) or those with pre-existing health conditions.Some scientists are reluctant to extend the delay between doses, fearing incomplete protection provided by the first injection may favour the emergence of new variants.The academy also called for the first injection to be postponed in the case of patients who had tested positive for the coronavirus within the preceding six months.

  • ‘Very few people knew’: Friend reveals Helen McCrory’s secret cancer battle

    Helen McCrory “swore friends to secrecy” as she underwent gruelling treatment for cancer. The Peaky Blinders actress told “very, very few people” about her diagnosis and carried on with her charity work just a few weeks before her death aged 52. Carrie Cracknell, who directed Ms McCrory in a state production of Medea, said the actress didn’t want her illness overshadowing her family and professional life.

  • Will the Tokyo Olympics go ahead in 2021?

    2020 Games have already been postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic