Most likely reports of dumb shit conservative politicians have called for, wanting access to messaging. You can find the exact same proposals in the US, European Parliament, individual EU countries, and a load of other places.

Dumb, sure, but a proposal that always goes nowhere isn't a law, and it's certainly not England or even UK-specific.

Yeah no, those news articles were full of shit.

They're referencing the UK "Online Safety Bill" passed last year, which was very scary when it was just an idea that hadn't been written yet.

But when it finally was written and we got to see the actual content of the bill — it basically requires certain companies to use "accredited technology" to detect and block certain categories of illegal content (especially CSAM and foreign election propaganda).

All the major platforms are already taking extensive steps to block illegal content and there's a good chance they will be happy to use whatever "technology" is eventually "accredited".

A lot rides on the specifics of the "technology" which hasn't been clearly defined - but it certainly is not a ban on encryption.