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Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global has announced plans to take its shares off the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and move its listing to Hong Kong.

The firm has come under intense pressure since its US debut in July.

Within days of the initial public offering (IPO) Beijing announced a crackdown on technology companies listing overseas.

Earlier on Thursday the US market watchdog unveiled tough new rules for Chinese firms that list in America.

“Following careful research, the company will immediately start delisting on the New York stock exchange and start preparations for listing in Hong Kong,” the company said on its account on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging network.

In a separate English language statement Didi said its board had approved the move, adding: “The company will organise a shareholders meeting to vote on the above matter at an appropriate time in the future, following necessary procedures.”

At the end of June, Didi – China’s answer to Uber – raised $4.4bn (£3.3bn) in its New York IPO.

However, trading was muted on the first day as investors weighed concerns over tensions between Washington and Beijing, and issues raised by US regulators over some Chinese firms’ financial reports.

Within days China’s internet regulator ordered online stores not to offer Didi’s app, saying it illegally collected users’ personal data.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it was investigating the firm to protect “national security and the public interest”.

In response Didi said in a statement: “The company will strive to rectify any problems, improve its risk prevention awareness and technological capabilities, protect users’ privacy and data security, and continue to provide secure and convenient services to its users.”

Didi also warned that the removal of its app from Chinese stores would have an adverse impact on its revenues.

Like many other Chinese technology companies Didi has also come under pressure from regulators in the US and Europe.

On Thursday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said it had finalised rules that would mean US-listed foreign companies can be delisted if their auditors do not comply with requests for information from regulators.

The law was passed in 2020 after Chinese regulators repeatedly denied requests from US authorities to inspect the the accounts of Chinese firms that list and trade in the US.

Meanwhile in August, a company source told the BBC that it had halted plans to launch in the UK and continental Europe.

It had been planning to roll out services in Western Europe, including major British cities.

Japan’s SoftBank is Didi’s largest single investor with a stake of more than 20%. It is also backed by Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent.

Uber also owns a stake in the firm as a result of Didi taking over Uber China in 2016.

Didi Global shares have lost more than 40% of their value since their US market debut.

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global has announced plans to take its shares off the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and move its listing to Hong Kong.

The firm has come under intense pressure since its US debut in July.

Within days of the initial public offering (IPO) Beijing announced a crackdown on technology companies listing overseas.

Earlier on Thursday the US market watchdog unveiled tough new rules for Chinese firms that list in America.

“Following careful research, the company will immediately start delisting on the New York stock exchange and start preparations for listing in Hong Kong,” the company said on its account on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging network.

In a separate English language statement it said its board had approved the move, adding: “The company will organise a shareholders meeting to vote on the above matter at an appropriate time in the future, following necessary procedures.”

At the end of June, Didi – China’s answer to Uber – raised $4.4bn (£3.3bn) in its New York IPO.

However, trading was muted on the first day as investors weighed concerns over tensions between Washington and Beijing, and issues raised by US regulators over some Chinese firms’ financial reports.

Within days China’s internet regulator ordered online stores not to offer Didi’s app, saying it illegally collected users’ personal data.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it was investigating the firm to protect “national security and the public interest”.

In response Didi said in a statement: “The company will strive to rectify any problems, improve its risk prevention awareness and technological capabilities, protect users’ privacy and data security, and continue to provide secure and convenient services to its users.”

Didi also warned that the removal of its app from Chinese stores would have an adverse impact on its revenues.

Like many other Chinese technology companies Didi has also come under pressure from regulators in the US and Europe.

On Thursday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said it had finalised rules that would mean US-listed foreign companies can be delisted if their auditors do not comply with requests for information from regulators.

The law was passed in 2020 after Chinese regulators repeatedly denied requests from US authorities to inspect the the accounts of Chinese firms that list and trade in the US.

Meanwhile in August, a company source told the BBC that it had halted plans to launch in the UK and continental Europe.

It had been planning to roll out services in Western Europe, including major British cities.

Japan’s SoftBank is Didi’s largest single investor with a stake of more than 20%. It is also backed by Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent.

Uber also owns a stake in the firm as a result of Didi taking over Uber China in 2016.

Didi Global shares have lost more than 40% of their value since their US market debut.

From Alibaba to Tencent, Chinese technology companies have been under scrutiny at home and abroad.

The country’s ride-hailing giant Didi has been at odds with Chinese regulators for months.

It shocked investors when Beijing removed Didi from app stores just a few days after the firm went public on Wall Street in late June, accusing it of violating data security rule.

Beijing has also announced rules to protect the rights of the millions of ride-hailing drivers, in a move aimed to underpin the sector’s growth.

But Chinese companies have also been closely watched by American regulators.

Didi said it is preparing to list in Hong Kong, and shareholders of its US listed shares will be able to convert their holdings to those on another stock exchange.

The company is also preparing to relaunch its apps in China by the end of the year.

Facebook owner Meta Platforms has removed more than 500 accounts linked to an online disinformation network primarily based in China.

The accounts had promoted the claims of a fake Swiss biologist called “Wilson Edwards”, who alleged the US was meddling in efforts to find the origins of Covid-19.

Edwards’ comments had been widely carried by Chinese state media outlets.

However, the Swiss embassy said that it was unlikely this person existed.

Meta said in its report the social media campaign was “largely unsuccessful,” and targeted English-speaking audiences in the United States and Britain and Chinese-speaking audiences in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Tibet.

Earlier in July, an account posing as a Swiss biologist called Wilson Edwards had made statements on Facebook and Twitter that the United States was applying pressure on the World Health Organization scientists who were studying the origins of Covid-19 in an attempt to blame the virus on China.

State media outlets, including CGTN, Shanghai Daily and Global Times, had cited the so-called biologist based on his Facebook profile.

However, the Swiss embassy said in August that the person likely did not exist, as the Facebook account was opened only two weeks prior to its first post and only had three friends.

It added “there was no registry of a Swiss citizen with the name “Wilson Edwards” and no academic articles under the name”, and urged Chinese media outlets to take down any mention of him.

Meta Platforms said in a November report that its investigation into the matter found “links to individuals in mainland China, including employees of Sichuan Silence Information Technology Co Ltd… and individuals associated with Chinese state infrastructure companies based around the world.”

Sichuan Silence Information’s website describes the company as a network and information security company that provides technical support to China’s Ministry of Public Security and CNCERT, the key team that coordinates China’s cybersecurity emergency response.

Facebook said it had removed a total of 524 Facebook accounts, 20 pages, four groups and 86 Instagram accounts after reviewing public reports that centred around the fake Swiss biologist.

The persona’s original post was initially shared and liked by fake Facebook accounts, and later forwarded by authentic users, most of which belonged to employees of Chinese state infrastructure companies in over 20 countries, Meta said.

It added that the operation used Virtual Personal Network (VPN) infrastructure to conceal its origin, and to give Edwards a more rounded personality. It also said that his profile photo also appeared to have been generated using machine-learning capabilities.

The investigation into the origins of Covid-19 have been a source of tension between the US, China and other countries, as the source of the virus remains murky almost two years after it was first discovered.

The Chinese province of Henan is building a surveillance system with face-scanning technology that can detect journalists and other “people of concern”.

Documents seen by BBC News describe a system that classifies journalists into a “traffic-light” system – green, amber and red.

Journalists in the “red” category would be “dealt with accordingly”, they say.

The Henan Public Security Bureau has not responded to a request for comment.

The documents, discovered by the surveillance analyst firm IPVM, also outline plans to surveil other “people of concern”, including foreign students and migrant women.

Human Rights Watch said: “This is not a government that needs more power to track more people… especially those who might be trying to peacefully hold it accountable.”

‘Thematic libraries’
The documents, published on 29 July, are part of a tendering process, encouraging Chinese companies to bid for a contract to build the new system, won, on 17 September, by NeuSoft.

NeuSoft has not responded to BBC News request for comment.

The system includes facial-recognition technology linked to thousands of cameras in Henan, to alert authorities when a “person of concern” is located.

“People of concern” would be categorised into “thematic libraries” – in an already existing database of information about and images of people in the province.

The system would also connect with China’s national database.

‘Key concern’
One of the groups of interest to the Henan Public Security Bureau is journalists, including foreign journalists.

“The preliminary proposal is to classify key concerned journalists into three levels,” the documents say.

“People marked in red are the key concern.

“The second level, marked in yellow, are people of general concern.

“Level three, marked in green – are for journalists who aren’t harmful.”

And an alert would be triggered as soon as “journalists of concern”, marked as “red” – or “yellow”, if they had previous criminal charges – booked a ticket to travel into the province.

The system would also assess foreign students and divide them into three categories of risk – “excellent foreign students, general personnel, and key people and unstable personnel”.

“The safety assessment is made by focusing on the daily attendance of foreign students, exam results, whether they come from key countries, and school-discipline compliance,” the documents say.

The schools themselves would need to notify the authorities of students with security concerns.

And those considered to be of concern would be tracked.

During politically sensitive periods, such as the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, “a wartime alarm mechanism” would be activated and tracking of “key concern” students stepped up, including tracking their cell phones.

The documents outline a desire for the system to contain information taken from:

cell phones
social media – such as WeChat and Weibo
vehicle details
hotel stays
travel tickets
property ownership
photos (from existing databases)
It should also focus on “stranded women”, or non-Chinese migrant women who do not have the right to live in China.

A large number of women enter China to find work.

Others have been trafficked from neighbouring countries.

And the system would “dock” with the National Immigration Bureau, the Ministry of Public Security and Henan police, among others.

The documents were published around the time the Chinese government criticised foreign media outlets for their coverage of the Henan floods.

Conor Healy, Government Director of IPVM, said: “The technical architecture of mass surveillance in China remains poorly understood… but building custom surveillance technology to streamline state suppression of journalists is new.

“These documents shed light on what China’s public-security officials want from mass surveillance.”

China’s facial-recognition system is thought to already be in use across the country.

And last year, the Washington Post reported Huawei had tested artificial-intelligence software that could recognise people belonging to the Uighur ethnic minority and alert police.

Human Rights Watch’s China director Sophie Richardson said: “The goal is chilling, ensuring that everyone knows they can and will be monitored – and that they never know what might trigger hostile interest.”

South Africa’s president has condemned travel bans enacted against his country and its neighbours over the new coronavirus variant Omicron.

Cyril Ramaphosa said he was “deeply disappointed” by the action, which he described as unjustified, and called for the bans to be urgently lifted.

The UK, EU and US are among those who have imposed travel bans.

Omicron has been classed as a “variant of concern”. Early evidence suggests it has a higher re-infection risk.

The heavily mutated variant was detected in South Africa earlier this month and then reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) last Wednesday.

The variant is responsible for most of the infections found in South Africa’s most populated province, Gauteng, over the last two weeks, and is now present in all other provinces in the country.

The WHO has warned against countries hastily imposing travel restrictions, saying they should look to a “risk-based and scientific approach”. However, numerous bans have been introduced in recent days amid concerns over the variant.

WHO’s Africa director Matshidiso Moeti said on Sunday: “With the Omicron variant now detected in several regions of the world, putting in place travel bans that target Africa attacks global solidarity.”

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In his speech on Sunday, Mr Ramaphosa said there was no scientific basis for the travel bans and that southern Africa was the victim of unfair discrimination.

He also argued that the bans would not be effective in preventing the spread of the variant.

“The only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to, and recover from, the pandemic,” he said.

He called on countries with bans in place to “urgently reverse their decisions… before any further damage is done to our economies”.

Mr Ramaphosa described the emergence of the Omicron variant as a wake-up call for the world regarding vaccine inequality – warning that until everyone was vaccinated, more variants were inevitable.

There are no vaccine shortages in South Africa itself, and Mr Ramaphosa urged more people to get jabbed, saying that remained the best way to fight the virus.

A previous statement by the South African foreign ministry on Saturday also strongly criticised the travel bans, saying the country was being punished – instead of applauded – for discovering Omicron.

Omicron has now been detected in a number of countries around the world, including the UK, Germany, Australia and Israel.

In other developments on Sunday:

In the Netherlands, Omicron was detected in 13 people who arrived in Amsterdam on two flights from South Africa.
Separately, Dutch police said they detained a couple who had escaped from a quarantine hotel. The arrest was made on a plane just before the take-off
Israel banned all foreigners from entering the country for 14 days from midnight Sunday
The UK called for an emergency meeting of the G7 group of nations on Monday to discuss the new variant
Voters in Switzerland backed the government’s measures to tackle Covid, according to preliminary results

As people rush to snap up their Black Friday deals, there are mounting worries that some gadgets won’t be available for Christmas.

Silicon, which is in most products, is in short supply because of high demand and manufacturing problems since the start of the pandemic.

The world now faces one of the most extreme chip shortages it has seen.

It means that this year, people may be disappointed when it comes to giving and receiving tech as presents.

Gamers face disappointment
According to technology experts Trusted Reviews, the Nintendo Switch is the UK’s most wanted piece of tech this year.

Earlier this month, Nintendo revised its sales forecast because of “the effects of the global semiconductor shortage”.

Chip designers ARM warned the scarcity could delay Christmas gifts like the Switch being delivered on time and said that, in some instances, the wait for chips is taking 60 weeks.

The PS5 and the Xbox Series X and Series S have been extremely difficult to buy since they launched last year. Demand for these new consoles would have been high regardless of the chip shortage. When they are occasionally restocked, they often sell out in minutes.

The situation has created a community of console hunters who aim to identify those rare times when stock is delivered, so they can pass the news on to their followers.

One is YouTuber Jake Randall, who says he has contacts with many employees across various retailers, who tell him when new batches are going into shops.

He also looks for clues on websites, such as Amazon talking about special deals for consoles for Prime customers which can be swiftly followed by new stock appearing online.

Jake told BBC’s World Service Tech Tent: “It’s extremely difficult to get a games console right now. This is probably the hardest it’s ever been – even more so than launch day or even earlier in the year.

“A lot of people have waited to get one because they thought it would get easier, but these companies cannot manufacture anywhere near enough to meet demand.”

The market is not helped by a community of people who use bots to buy up consoles and sell them at inflated prices, he added.

Smartphone supplies also hit

Apple’s iPhone is also a much wanted gift for Christmas, after its latest generation model was released in September.

The company recorded a 54% increase in revenue in the first three months of 2021, when compared with the same period last year.

But it faced “larger than expected supply constraints” between June and September, and said that the chip shortage is now affecting “most products”.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook previously warned investors that it could affect sales of the iPhone and the iPad.

There are less handsets available too. Apple had originally planned to produce 90 million iPhones in the final months of this year, but cut that figure by 10 million because there were not enough available parts.

There are also reports that Samsung and OnePlus are struggling to keep up with demand for their phones.

Earlier in the year, Google was forced to limit its Pixel 5a launch to only the USA and Japan.

Good news if you want a laptop
There is some good news though, as the big online retailers do seem to have stock of both laptops and tablets.

The pandemic created huge demand for laptops, because people needed kit to work from home.

Tech company Philips also said memory chip producers were not able to keep up, and that ships transporting products were backed up in ports.

Laptop manufacturers like Dell, Acer and HP say that they are selling models as fast as they can make them, and with the recent launch of Windows 11, competition for stock is even fiercer.

However, Argos has assured its customers that they will have access to a range of deals and products, although it made no guarantees.

“Availability in some product categories may vary, but alternatives are available and stores continue to receive deliveries daily,” a spokesperson said.

And Currys said it has been “working hard” to ensure that its customers can get hold of the goods they want.

“Thanks to our preparations and strong relationships with the biggest brands, we already have more stock in the business than we did last year,” a spokesperson told the BBC.

“There are inevitably some products that will be hotter than others, but we’re confident we’ll have plenty of choice for everyone.”

When will this shortage end?
Experts have predicted the shortage could go on for another year or so.

Pedro Martins, co-founder of IT company Totality Services, said: “The reality is, the silicon chip shortage has been ongoing for some time now, it just wasn’t visible to the general public.

“It’s more prominent now because of the sheer volume of user devices that require chips. In the past it was mainly servers, workstations and laptops that needed the chips, that’s no longer the case.

“The reality is, no-one actually knows when the shortage will end, but it will without a doubt improve in the short term.”

Amazon workers in 20 countries – including the US, UK, and several in the EU – are planning protests and work stoppages on Black Friday.

The shopping-centric day is among Amazon’s busiest all year.

The Make Amazon Pay group says: “Amazon takes too much and gives back too little.”

It is backed by a coalition of labour groups, trade unions, grassroots campaigns and non-profit-making organisations in individual countries.

In the UK, that includes the:

GMB Union
Trades Union Congress
Momentum
War on Want
International Transport Workers’ Federation
Labour Behind the Label
No UK Amazon warehouses are unionised, so legally they can’t strike.

Many employees will be working on the day, but campaign groups which include Amazon workers will be staging protests at Amazon buildings in Coalville, Leicestershire, Coventry, Peterborough and at its London headquarters.

But strikes are being encouraged elsewhere.

In Germany, for example, the union Verdi called on employees at major shipping centres to strike, beginning on Wednesday night.

Worldwide, nearly 50 organisations have signed up to a list of “common demands”, published by the Make Amazon Pay coalition, which include:

raising warehouse workers’ pay and adding hazard pay and peak time increments
halting worker “surveillance” and strict productivity targets
extending sick leave and improving Covid-19 tracking and reporting
ending casual employment status and “union-busting” activities
paying taxes without using loopholes or tax havens
“This company is a pandemic profiteer can afford to do better,” said Mick Rix, from the GMB Union. “It’s time for Amazon sit down with their workers’ union GMB and make Amazon a great, safe place to work. “

Amazon reported a tripling of profits earlier this year, attributed to its success during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company has also been accused of taking an anti-union stance across its operations, particularly in the US.

A landmark push to unionise a workplace in Bessemer, Alabama, failed earlier this year but was examined by the US regulator over allegations the company had put pressure on employees during the vote.

Owen Espley, from the War on Want campaign group, said: “Amazon’s growing power is a threat to communities and workers around the world.

“Amazon is abusing its dominance across online retail, cloud services, and logistics, to create unfair competition that is driving down standards for everyone.

“Amazon workers face unsafe conditions, constant surveillance and are treated like robots.

“It’s time for Amazon to pay fair wages, fair taxes, and for its impact on the planet.”

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on the UK action.

But its representatives have told US media outlets it is already addressing many of the concerns laid out by the Make Amazon Pay group, while admitting things “are not perfect” as they are.

Apple’s much promoted digital driver’s licence feature is now to be delayed to early 2022.

Announced in September, the scheme will allow residents in eight US states to store state IDs and driver’s licences inside the Apple Wallet app on their iPhone.

The delay follows Apple’s announcement it was looking for “sole control” over how states rolled out the feature.

Reports have stated the new feature will come at a cost to the taxpayer.

Conflicting information
The delay was first noticed on an update to Apple’s iOS 15 page, by technology website MacRumors.

Apple has not provided a specific release date for the feature beyond the early 2022 timeframe.

And there is conflicting information on the company’s site, with the software’s All New Features page still stating the ID feature is coming in “late 2021”.

BBC News has asked Apple for comment.

Privacy concerns
Arizona, and Georgia will introduce the system first, with Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah also signed up.

Apple has said it is in discussions with other US states – reportedly including Florida – as it works to offer the feature, announced at a presentation in June, nationwide in the future.

The “first locations” to use the system will be airport-security checkpoints run by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Apple says.

Some users had expressed privacy concerns about handing over smartphones to police or security officials.

And Apple now says users do not need to unlock or hand over their phones for the system to work for airport security.

But it remains unclear if or how it might eventually work for other uses of ID, such as drivers stopped by police.

The people behind a failed bid to buy a rare original copy of the US constitution are facing an avalanche of refunds – up to $40m for 17,000 donors.

The ConstitutionDAO team used a “decentralised” approach – largely unregulated and using cryptocurrency – to amass the fortune.

But large fees for those crypto-transactions are eating up huge sums of money in the refund process.

The group said issuing refunds was its top priority.

ConstitutionDAO – short for “decentralised autonomous organisation” – raised the vast sums of money in the Ethereum cryptocurrency to bid on an extremely rare privately-owned copy of the original printing of the US constitution.

The group had promised to maintain the historic document “for the people”.

But they were outbid by a private investor, and the document sold for more than double the auction house’s original estimate.

Now, some investors in the scheme are reporting that they must pay fees of up to half their refund.

Gas money
That is because the Ethereum network records its transactions on the blockchain, the same basic technology idea that powers other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

And like Bitcoin mining, it requires computational power to run.

“Gas” is the fee paid to those who run the computer systems to facilitate transactions. And it changes price based on supply and demand.

That means that at times, it can be much more expensive to make any kind of transaction, depending on how busy the Ethereum network is.

And the network has recently seen high usage – and high gas prices.

Buying a pink NFT cat was a nightmare
On its official Discord – the chat app which allows anyone to create rooms and discussion channels for enthusiasts on almost any topic – the group said it had 17,437 donors with a median donation of $206.26.

High gas fees mean that “small” donations could be severely hit by the transaction charge.

One user on the Discord said that in order to get $400 refunded, they would have to pay $168 in gas. Others complained of the fees being higher than the relatively small amount of their refund.

“Wow, lessons learned, [Ethereum] is no good. Gas too high,” wrote another in the support channel.

A different contributor lamented that the experience might sour cryptocurrency for those who were not already investors, but got caught up in the drama of “buying the constitution”.

“Almost a third of people that contributed are new to [Ethereum] and their first experience is this. Not only that, they’ll have to know the pain of paying $200+ in gas for literally nothing,” they said.

The future
Senior figures in the Discord- known as delegates – said there was no clear solution.

“We looked at and did everything in our power to come up with a gas-free refund option. However there was nothing that could be set up in a timely manner,” wrote one.

“Providing a safe refund process as soon as possible was the primary goal.”

Another admin on the server told users: “This was a very, very hard call and we’ve all been at our computers for the last several days for every waking hour trying to find the least bad option. There was no solution that was going to please everyone.”

But despite the chaotic refunds process after the group’s initial reason for existence failed, its organisers have pledged that this is not the end.

The group was only established days before the auction of the historic document by Sotheby’s, and so had little time to set up its desired decentralised structure. Instead, a core group of insiders – the delegates – took care of managing the project, writing and rewriting the rules and FAQs as they went.

The group had originally planned to use ownership of digital tokens as a way of allocating voting power over the care and display of the constitution document, and briefly proposed a new type of token to decide its future.

That has since been scrapped – but the group is promising an imminent announcement “regarding the future of ConstitutionDAO”.

“We know you have been waiting patiently, and we are grateful for it. We know you have questions, and we are working on answers.”

Plans to roll out end-to-end encryption on Facebook and Instagram have been delayed amid a row over child safety.

Meta – as Facebook’s parent company is now called – said messaging encryption on the apps would now come in 2023.

The process means only the sender and receiver can read messages, but law enforcement or Meta cannot.

However, child protection groups and politicians have warned that it could hamper police investigating child abuse.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), has claimed that private messaging “is the front line of child sexual abuse”.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has also criticised the technology, saying earlier this year that it could “severely hamper” law enforcement in pursuing criminal activity, including online child abuse.

Privacy v protection
End-to-end encryption works by “scrambling” or encrypting the data while it travels between phones and other devices.

The only way to read the message is usually to get physical access to an unlocked device that sent or received it.

The technology is the default for popular messaging service WhatsApp, also owned by Meta – but not the company’s other apps.

The NSPCC sent Freedom of Information requests to 46 police forces across England, Wales, and Scotland asking them for a breakdown of the platforms used to commit sexual offences against children last year.

The responses revealed:

more than 9,470 instances of child sex abuse images and online child sex offences were reported to police
52% of these took place on Facebook-owned apps
over a third of the cases took place on Instagram, and 13% on Facebook and Messenger, with very few occurring via WhatsApp
That has led to fears that Meta’s plans to expand encryption to widely-used Facebook Messenger and Instagram direct messages could shield the majority of abusers from detection.

The NSPCC said that encrypting messages by default could lead to the easier spread of child abuse imagery or online grooming.

But advocates say that encryption protects users’ privacy, and prevents prying by both governments and unscrupulous hackers. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg made those arguments himself when he announced Facebook’s encryption plans in 2019.

‘Getting it right’
Antigone Davis, Meta’s global head of safety, said that the delay in implementing encryption to 2023 was because the company was taking its time “to get this right”.

The company had previously said the change would happen in 2022 at the earliest.

Ms Davis said: “As a company that connects billions of people around the world and has built industry-leading technology, we’re determined to protect people’s private communications and keep people safe online.”

She also outlined a number of additional preventative measures the company had already put in place, including:

“proactive detection technology” that scans for suspicious patterns of activity such as a user who repeatedly sets up new profiles, or messages a large number of people they do not know
placing under-18 users into private or “friends only” accounts by default, and restricting adults from messaging them if they aren’t already connected
educating young people with in-app tips on how to avoid unwanted interactions
Andy Burrows, head of child safety online policy at the NSPCC, welcomed the delay by Meta.

He said: “They should only go ahead with these measures when they can demonstrate they have the technology in place that will ensure children will be at no greater risk of abuse.

“More than 18 months after an NSPCC-led a global coalition of 130 child protection organisations raised the alarm over the danger of end-to-end encryption, Facebook must now show they are serious about the child safety risks and not just playing for time while they weather difficult headlines.”