EU 'Chat Control' snoopfest returns after vote to kill it falls short
Opponents won the count but missed the 360-seat threshold needed to stop the interim CSAM-scanning rule
An effort by European parliamentarians to block the reintroduction of an interim rule allowing tech companies to scan chats for evidence of child sexual abuse failed today, despite securing more votes than the MEPs who want to keep it alive.Commonly referred to by critics as Chat Control, or Chat Control 1.0, the interim rule acts as a derogation from the ePrivacy Directive, allowing online communications platforms to voluntarily detect, report, and remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM).Chat Control expired on April 3, 2026, after first being introduced in August 2021. Today, however, MEPs did not reach the required threshold to prevent it from moving toward reintroduction.
Although 314 politicians voted to scrap Chat Control, while 276 voted to keep it, the vote required 360 MEPs to reject the Council of the European Union's position. As a result, the attempt to abolish the interim rule failed, despite more voting MEPs opposing it than supporting it.
A separate, but related vote, which sought to limit scanning to accounts belonging only to individuals identified by the judiciary, also failed to reach the necessary majority, effectively permitting the scanning of all accounts without a warrant.MEPs did manage to secure a majority for excluding end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) platforms from Chat Control's scanning provisions, although the practical effect of that change may be limited, since providers should not be able to inspect message contents in transit.What's left is essentially the same legislation as introduced in 2021 – Chat Control 1.0, but without legal permission to scan E2EE messages.The European Parliament's amended position will now be sent back to the Council of the European Union, which has three months to approve or reject the legislation.Chat Control could be reintroduced in the EU in that time frame. If the Council cannot accept all the amendments, a conciliation committee will be convened to reach a resolution.If approved, it will be valid until 2028, or until a permanent solution is passed.One of the movement's more outspoken campaigners, former MEP Patrick Breyer, called Chat Control a vehicle for "suspicionless mass surveillance," and said it serves as a smokescreen to delay real action against the spread of CSAM online.
