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The European Union (EU) is seeking to scan your messages, including encrypted ones, to detect and stop child sex abuse material (CSAM). The proposed chat control legislation will undergo a vote in the EU Council later today. If the controversial new legislation passes this voting round, it will move forward in the Council’s law-making process.
EU wants to scan your encrypted messages for child safety
In this AI-powered digital world, child safety is one of the major concerns for lawmakers and parents alike. While internet platforms have placed various rules and regulations to make children safer online, these systems aren’t foolproof. The EU believes it can develop a more effective measure—scanning private messages to prevent the spread of CSAM.
Introduced in May 2022, this controversial regulation aims to implement an “upload moderation” system. Service providers must install a “vetted” monitoring technology that scans all your digital messages. It will check for potential child sex abuse material in images, videos, and links you share. Users will be asked to allow permission to scan their messages. You cannot share media files and links if you don’t allow permission.
Interestingly, the European lawmakers who drafted this regulation made arguments both in favor of and against end-to-end encryption (E2EE). The proposed law says E2EE “is a necessary means of protecting fundamental rights.” However, it also states that encrypting messages could inadvertently make messaging apps “secure zones where child sexual abuse material can be shared or disseminated.”
The regulation doesn’t ask service providers to lift E2EE in Europe. Instead, it wants a backdoor that allows scanning of the message before it is encrypted. This new moderation system leaves messages open for scanning without compromising the layer of privacy offered by end-to-end encryption. E2EE doesn’t allow anyone apart from the sender and receiver to read the message, not even the messaging platform and governments.
Industry players have opposed this regulation
Before the regulation goes into the voting round later today, several privacy advocates and industry players have expressed concerns over it. Organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy & Technology, and Mozilla have signed a joint statement urging the EU to reject the law. Many European Parliament members have also opposed the proposed law.
Encrypted messaging platform Signal plans to exit Europe if this law is passed. “We will leave the EU market rather than undermine our privacy guarantees,” said Signal President Meredith Whittaker. “This proposal—if passed and enforced against us—would require us to make this choice. It’s surveillance wine in safety bottles.” It remains to be seen what the EU Council decides. It won’t be a long wait, so stay tuned.