WhatsApp's Encryption Was Funded By Same Members of Congress Trying to Weaken It

The popular messaging service WhatsApp turned on end-to-end encryption for all of its 1 billion users, a massive achievement which effectively blocks any third party—including WhatsApp itself—from reading users' chats. But while the Department of Justice has vowed to continue its fight to provide backdoors for law enforcement, other parts of the US government have actively funded the development of these very encryption systems—including some of the same members of Congress currently pushing for legislation to weaken them.

Sens Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Richard Burr (R-NC), for example, are two of the most prominent proponents of encryption backdoors on the Hill. They're currently working to introduce legislation that would force companies to comply with orders to access communications—even if it means building new software or capabilities, much like Apple was being ordered to do in the San Bernardino case. But Sens Feinstein and Burr have supported encryption in the past, whether they realized it or not. Both Sens voted for appropriations bills in 2008 and 2010 which, among other things, set aside $45 million for the Open Technology Fund (OTF), a State Department-funded program which seeded the very encryption tools they're now struggling against. Altogether, the OTF has given Open Whisper Systems $2.25 million to develop its easy-to-use and now widespread encryption software since 2013; American Civil Liberties Union principal technologist Chris Soghoian calls it “an amazing return on our investment” as American taxpayers.