EU member states have once again failed to agree on a European Commission proposal to scan all your private communications to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
regarded as Chat control For critics, the draft bill has been a contentious issue from the start. Despite the changes to the proposal, experts still warn of the serious impact on people’s privacy and data security of indiscriminate scanning of all chats, including encrypted ones.
Today, December 12, 2024, Hungary takes over the rotating EU Presidency first public vote Once again, regulatory proposals failed to appeal to a majority. This means further work is needed before the draft bill can be submitted to Parliament for negotiation.
🇬🇧 #ChatControl again does not have a majority +++ New Commissioner Hahn defends it – unlike his own country +++ Many governments (AT, DE, SL, NL, LU, CZ, PL, EE, FI) public Criticizing proposed indiscriminate #masssurveillanceofallusers +++ Watch the recording: https://t.co/QYznKPfFe8 pic.twitter.com/xeiz33erqcDecember 12, 2024
While everyone is aware of the need to find balanced solutions to these crimes, 10 of the 27 EU member states oppose the Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSAR) in its current form.
For example, the representative of Germany pointed out that accessing encrypted communications is not the right way to solve the problem.
Luxembourg also pointed out the legal and technical challenges faced by the current regulations, including the need for communications monitoring to comply with the rule of proportionality European Charter of Human Rights. “Our view is that current testing rules will lead to widespread indiscriminate surveillance,” he added.
Austria, Slovenia, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia and Finland also reiterated that their countries would be required to abstain based on similar privacy and security implications.
“Given that we currently have a caretaker government, we cannot take a position on this issue,” said the representative of Belgium, which was previously on the undecided list and later joined the favorable list and now joins the ranks of governments opposing the proposal.
What to do next?
Since it was first proposed in May 2022, lawmakers have made a number of changes to the EU CSAM Act amid growing criticism from privacy, technology and political seats.
according to latest versioncommunications service providers – including Encrypted messaging app and secure email Service – requires user permission to scan all photos, videos and URLs you share with other users. However, you must agree to scan shared materials before encrypting them to continue using this feature.
Experts say this so-called “upload moderation” provision still damages people’s privacy and security. therefore, Privacy backlash The tech industry remains strong internally as well.
According to the European Pirate Party (see tweet above), most EU countries already support the proposal in its current form. These include countries such as France, Italy and Portugal, which had previously been either hesitant or strongly opposed.
All EU member states have expressed their strong determination to find solutions to stop crimes related to child sexual abuse, so we can expect further progress on this front in the coming weeks.