The European Union is inching closer to passing a new law that mandates the bulk scanning of digital messages, including encrypted ones. This proposed legislation, aimed at detecting child sexual abuse material (CSAM), is set to be voted on by EU governments. The outcome will determine if the proposal has enough support to advance in the EU’s law-making process.
Introduced in 2022, the law proposes an “upload moderation” system that scans all digital messages, including shared images, videos, and links. Each service required to install this “vetted” monitoring technology must also ask permission to scan your messages. If you don’t agree, you won’t be able to share images or URLs.
Interestingly, the proposed legislation seems to both endorse and reject end-to-end encryption simultaneously. It initially highlights how end-to-end encryption “is a necessary means of protecting fundamental rights,” but then suggests that encrypted messaging services could “inadvertently become secure zones where child sexual abuse material can be shared or disseminated.”
The proposed solution is to leave messages wide open for scanning — but without compromising the privacy offered by end-to-end encryption. It suggests that the new moderation system could accomplish this by scanning the contents of your messages before apps like Signal, WhatsApp, and Messenger encrypt them.
Several organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy & Technology, and Mozilla, have signed a joint statement urging the EU to reject proposals that scan user content. Privacy advocates aren’t the only ones raising alarm bells about the proposal. This week, dozens of Parliament members wrote to the EU Council to express their opposition to the proposal. Patrick Breyer, a German member of the European Parliament, has also spoken out about the bill, saying that “indiscriminate searches and error-prone leaks of private chats and intimate photos destroy our fundamental right to private correspondence.”
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