The European Union is backing away from its efforts to combat child abuse online with the use of chat control. A draft presented by the Council of the European Union draft proposal for further negotiations no longer provides for the highly controversial scanning of devices of Messenger and cloud service users. The outcome of the negotiations had already leaked beforehand. Security experts also view the voluntary measures critically. Now it has been officially confirmed.
After months of wrangling, the Danish Council Presidency had to abandon its plans in November to force messenger services like WhatsApp, Signal, or Threema to automatically scan private communications. Civil rights activists and data protectionists protested against this, fearing the de facto end of end-to-end encryption and sensing a backdoor for further surveillance. Messenger services like Signal even announced their withdrawal from the EU if the law had passed.
What the EU plans instead
The now agreed position, on the other hand, focuses on risk assessments for online services, voluntary protective measures by providers, and a new EU agency. The transitional regulation, limited until April 2026, which allows voluntary scanning for abuse material, is to remain permanently in place.
