An excellent source of information on the motives of UK legislators for passing this legislation, other than the incompetence and malice hypothesised in the other comments, is this parliamentary research briefing from 2022 [1], which summarises the previous five years of consultation and links to a heap of previous white papers and critical responses.<p>The "news" is that on 17 April 2023, the heads of WhatsApp, Signal and other companies published an open letter questioning "the Government's stated intention to protect end-to-end encryption and respect the human right to privacy" [2], and on 27 April 2023, a member of the House of Lords said that "services such as WhatsApp will potentially leave the UK" [3] if the Bill is passed. The debate is actually pretty informed and a refreshing antidote to the cynicism about democracy expressed elsewhere, until you recall that the House of Lords is not that democratic.<p>[1]: <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9506/" rel="nofollow">https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-...</a><p>[2]: <a href="https://blog.whatsapp.com/an-open-letter" rel="nofollow">https://blog.whatsapp.com/an-open-letter</a><p>[3]: <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2023-04-27/debates/AC7C700F-39F3-406C-854C-0EA6F3E3E911/OnlineSafetyBill#contribution-BE0861B9-7976-47A7-BE8D-C8AC25BBB896" rel="nofollow">https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2023-04-27/debates/AC7C7...</a>