How does this even make sense? The criminals would just move to another platform like SimpleX or use a VPN.

Whole article in English:

The encrypted messaging app Signal is growing - now even the Swedish Armed Forces use it.

But the government wants to force the company to introduce a technical backdoor for the police and Säpo.

• “If this becomes a reality, we will leave Sweden,” says Signal’s CEO Meredith Whittaker, in an exclusive interview with SVT.

If the government gets its way, the bill will be passed in the Riksdag as early as March next year.

The bill states that companies such as Signal and Whatsapp will be forced to store all messages sent using the apps. Leaving Sweden

Signal - which is run by a non-profit foundation - has now told SVT Nyheter that the company will leave Sweden if the bill becomes reality.

• “In practice, this means that we are being asked to break the encryption that is the basis of our entire business. Asking us to store data would undermine our entire architecture and we would never do that. We would rather leave the Swedish market completely,” says Signal’s CEO Meredith Whittaker.

She says the bill would require Signal to install so-called backdoors in its software.

• “If you create a vulnerability based on Swedish wishes, it would create a path to undermine our entire network. Therefore, we would never introduce these backdoors.

But don’t you have a responsibility as a supplier to support anti-crime efforts?

• Our responsibility is to provide technology that upholds human rights in an era where those rights are being violated in more and more places. In today’s digital world, there are very few places where we can communicate privately or whistleblow. Armed forces critical

Whittaker cites the 2024 attack by the Chinese state actor Salt Typhoon on several internet service providers in the US, where text messages and phone calls were leaked. She argues that a Swedish backdoor would open up for the same thing.

• “There are no backdoors that only the good guys have access to.”

The aim of the bill is to allow the Security Service and the police to request the message history of criminal suspects after the fact. Both authorities were positive in the consultation.

• “The ability of law enforcement authorities to effectively access electronic communications is crucial,” said Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) earlier at a press conference.

But the Swedish Armed Forces are opposed and recently urged their personnel to start using Signal to reduce the risk of interception.

In a letter to the government, the Swedish Armed Forces wrote that the bill could not be implemented “without introducing vulnerabilities and backdoors that could be exploited by third parties”.