Apple Inc. warned today that if British surveillance laws change with the upcoming Online Safety Bill, it might have no choice but to pull iMessage and FaceTime from the country.

Under the new bill, there will be significant changes to the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. The amendment will give the British Home Office the power to demand that major security features are changed and even disabled on applications. The kicker is tech companies won’t be able to appeal under the new law.

What this relates to is end-to-end encryption — the backbone of privacy in online messaging and something Apple has had to fight for on numerous occasions. The bill asserts that the U.K. government should be notified before a company makes changes to an app, which will include iOS software updates and Apple’s worldwide security and encryption updates. Apple opposes this.

Also, if the government demands that, under the new law the company will have to relent and disable the said security feature if it’s sent a Technology Capability Notice, or TCN. This will happen without the public being informed.

At present, if such a demand is issued, Apple would be able to appeal, but it won’t if the new law goes into effect. Apple said this will make the government “the de facto global arbiter of what level of data security and encryption are permissible.”

“Together, these provisions could be used to force a company like Apple, that would never build a backdoor, to publicly withdraw critical security features from the U.K. market, depriving U.K. users of these protections,” Apple said. Meta Platfforms Inc.’s WhatsApp and the Signal messaging app have also railed against the online safety bill.

Apple warned that it will have no choice but to “walk” from the U.K. if the bill — sometimes called the “snooper’s charter” — becomes a reality. It will, in effect, end messaging privacy.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called the Online Safety Bill a “necessary piece of legislation” to fight illegal content online. The government’s usual refrain related to such snooping is centered around keeping children safe regarding sexual content, as well as terrorism-related incidents, but privacy advocates see it as nothing more than oppressive Orwellian surveillance.

A group of British academics sees only problems ahead if the government goes through with this. In an open letter signed by numerous researchers and scientists working in information security and cryptography, they said what will happen is companies such as Apple, and many more, will leave the U.K. rather than comply. “This would leave U.K. residents in a vulnerable situation, having to adopt compromised and weak solutions for online interactions,” they said.

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