The controversial draft European regulation on surveillance

European governments do not intend to comment soon on the proposed regulation known as 'chat control'. This provision was designed to Fighting the spread of child pornography by automatically analysing the content of all Europeans' phones, a proposal that sparked criticism from privacy advocates and email providers. 

In this context, last June, a decisive vote by the committee of permanent representatives, which brings together members of the governments of the European Union (EU), was postponed indefinitely, given the uncertainty of the outcome of the vote on this highly controversial text. 

What is “chat control” and why is it so controversial?

It was a second version for this project, after the European Parliament thoroughly reviewed its original content, which It was dated late 2023. MEPs had greatly toned down the ambitions of that first version, that It was intended to force all email providers to analyze the content of messages passing through their platforms. to detect the presence of child pornography. 

The idea provoked harsh criticism of digital companies, representatives of some parties and privacy specialists, who unanimously condemned the proposal consider it impossible to fulfill without breaking essential mechanisms to protect the communications of European citizens. Other online privacy advocacy groups also pointed to the potential implications of opening the door to government control over previously protected communications.

The European Parliament and national governments divided

The new version of the text, rated as “compromise” version and drafted under the auspices of the Belgian EU Presidency, maintained that fundamental idea of “chat control”: a widespread automated analysis of shared photos and videos by smartphone owners in Europe. However, its main difference with the initial project is that These items would only be scanned when uploaded to an app like WhatsApp or Messenger, rather than at the time of sending.

But this difference has not convinced online privacy advocates and email and messaging service providers. Like the first version, the new text also sparked protests from privacy protection associations and various groups of MEPs. 48 European parliamentarians signed an open letter drafted by MEP Patrick Breyer (from the German Pirate Party, the main opponent of the text) denouncing “a project of mass surveillance” which would constitute “a model for authoritarian states.”

The Belgian proposal was therefore abandoned for the time being. However, in July Hungary took over the rotating presidency and Budapest has announced that it wants to relaunch the Chat Control project. Along with Spain, Hungary was one of the countries most in favour of adopting the text., while the Executives of Germany and Austria are the most strongly opposed.

The future of “chat control” and the challenges for online privacy

Other countries, such as France, They have not clearly defined their position and have asked for adjustments, including a guarantee that “This mechanism will not weaken encryption, and that technologies that will ensure encryption will be available when we implement the relevant provisions of the text.“. 

For several years, governments, activists and large digital companies have been waging a Great battle over the issue of encryption. This communications protection tool, which makes a message indecipherable except for its sender and recipient, has become a central key to protecting our digital life. But it also It greatly complicates the task of authorities who want to be able to access communications in their investigations., since intercepted messages are indecipherable, even for the creator of the application, such as WhatsApp or Signal.

The latest wording was similar to that adopted by British MPs when approving in September 2023, the Online Safety Bill which also provided for automated analysis of all electronic exchanges. However, after months of debate, British MPs included a clause at the last minute stipulating that mandatory message verification measures would only be imposed “when technology allows it effectively”, also indefinitely postponing the application of certain measures.

Source: Panda Security

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