WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart says the platform will have no choice but to leave the UK if the country forces it to remove one of the app’s most important security features as it goes against an online security bill they are working on.

WhatsApp has become the world’s largest and most used messaging app, thanks to its more than 2,000 million registered users. Especially in the West where it is very well received, where it has established itself as the preferred means of communication for users of all ages.

However, as pointed out by Guardian it seems WhatsApp could soon disappear from the UK, due to a dispute between the application and the state authorities, due to the new bill they are drafting. Specifically, this is a new law that covers aspects of online security, and which directly clashes with one of WhatsApp’s most prominent functions, end-to-end encryption.

End-to-end encryption is used in messaging services for ipreventing anyone, except the recipient of the communication, from being able to decipher it. “It’s amazing to think about. There’s no way to change that in one part of the world.” says Cathcart “The reality is that our users around the world want security. 98% of our users are outside the UK.”

The truth is that end-to-end encryption has caused occasional controversy against WhatsApp, although as Cathcart observes “Some countries have chosen to block it: it is the reality of secure product delivery. We were recently blocked in Iran, for example. But we’ve never seen a liberal democracy do that.”

Actually, since 2016 UK can legally request WhatsApp to remove end-to-end encryption thanks to the investigative powers act, however, the company never received a formal request.

The bill appears to be up for vote this summer in the UK parliament and if approved, WhatsApp will have three options. The first is the company change how your app worksthe second is that Meta pays a penalty of 4% of its annual bill or, finally, WhatsApp should do it stopped operating in the UK.