European Parliament voted to expand rules allowing tech companies to voluntarily scan users’ private messages for child sexual abuse material, even though a majority of lawmakers voted against the proposal.
The ruling restores the power of companies including Meta, Google and Microsoft to scan private text messages, emails and social media messages under a law called “Chat Control” by critics. End-to-end encrypted chats, such as those on WhatsApp and Signal, remain disabled.
“This will mean that private companies can deny you the right to confidential digital conversations,” Simeon de Brouwer, a policy adviser at the Brussels-based advocacy group European Digital Rights, tells WIRED. “they can, if they want, read every message you write, every email you send, every photo you share.”
The European People’s Party, the largest political group in the European Parliament, has been fighting to restore technology companies’ legal basis to scan messages since the previous law expired in April. Members say companies’ voluntary detection efforts have helped identify and rescue victims of online child sexual exploitation, and that their refusal to do so leaves children unprotected. They were in a hurry to reintroduce the legislation before Parliament goes into summer recess at the end of the month.
“We cannot go into the summer break knowing that our children are not protected,” party vice-president Tomas Tobé told lawmakers.
But privacy implications mean the legislation has faced fierce opposition from other parties and civil rights activists. After talks broke down in March, the EPP resorted to a procedural maneuver to force another vote on the legislation this week. This “urgent procedure” bypasses preliminary debates in committees, where amendments would often be made, and stipulates that the regulation will be adopted unless an absolute majority of 361 MEPs vote against it.
Although more Members of the European Parliament voted against the regulation than for it on Thursday, they fell tiny of this majority by 47 votes. Tech companies will now retain this right to scan messages for child sexual abuse until 2028, or until constant legislation – under discussion and already dubbed “chat control” by critics – replaces it.
Civil rights activist and former MEP Patrick Breyer called the ruling a “farce” that “damages democracy.”
“Our children are the real losers in this undemocratic process,” says A blog post by Breyer. “Trying to protect children through mass surveillance without suspicion is like frantically mopping the floor while the faucet is still running. General surveillance via chat is as unacceptable as mass opening of all postal mail.”