Key European Union lawmakers remain deadlocked over a controversial bill that could force millions of messaging app users to consent to having their photo and video uploads scanned by AI to detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Critics of the plan include tech industry messaging giants like WhatsApp, to privacy-focused companies like Signal and Proton, legal, security and data protection experts, civil society and digital rights groups, and a majority of members of the European Parliament from all political sides, who warn that the proposal would break encryption and pose an existential threat to democratic freedoms and fundamental rights such as privacy in the European Union.
Opponents also argue that the EU plan will not achieve its alleged child protection objectives, but rather will feed app users' everyday messages into flawed AI-based CSAM detection systems, leaving law enforcement overwhelmed with millions of false positives.
On Thursday, a meeting of ambassadors representing the EU's 27 member governments was expected to reach an agreement to begin negotiations with the European Parliament after the Belgian presidency put the issue on the agenda for today's meeting. However, a spokesman for Belgium's permanent representative to the EU confirmed to TechCrunch that the issue had been dropped after it became clear that opinions between governments were still too divided to secure a majority on the negotiating mandate.
“We had hoped to get it approved at today's ambassadors' meeting, but it remains to be seen whether we will get the necessary majority,” a Belgian spokesman said. “In the last hours before the meeting it became clear that the necessary special majority cannot be reached today, so we have decided to remove the item from the agenda and continue the consultations between member states to continue working on the text.”
This is important because EU law tends to be tripartite, with the Commission proposing legislation, and then the Parliament and Council discussing (and often amending) the legislation to reach a final compromise. But this so-called tripartite discussion on the CSAM scanning file cannot begin until the Council adopts its position. So if member states remain divided, as they have been for nearly two years since the Commission introduced the CSAM scanning proposal, the file will remain on hold.
Earlier this week, Signal president Meredith Whittaker stepped up her attack on the controversial EU proposal.[M]”The introduction of mass scanning of private communications would fundamentally undermine encryption – that's all,” she warned, accusing local lawmakers of cynically trying to rename client-side scanning to cover up plans that amount to mass surveillance of private communications.
Despite growing concerns that the European Union is pivoting too quickly to digital surveillance, the European Commission and Council are continuing to push for a framework that would require messaging platforms, including end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) platforms like Signal, to build in the scanning of citizens' private messages, rather than supporting more targeted searches and exceptions for E2EE platforms proposed by MEPs in the European Parliament last year.
Last month, details of proposed changes to CSAM that Belgium was asking member governments to consider were leaked, causing fresh unrest.
Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer, who has opposed the European Commission's CSAM scanning plans from the start, argues that the Commission's revised proposal would mean that users of messaging apps in the EU would be unable to send images to others unless they consent to the scanning of all images and videos they send to others, through a technological scheme described in the document as “upload moderation.” “The leaked Belgian proposal means that the essence of the EU Commission's extreme and unprecedented original chat control proposals will go into effect unchanged,” Breyer warned at the time.
The makers of private messaging apps including Signal have also warned that they would leave the EU rather than be subject to bulk surveillance laws.
In an email to reporters today, Breyer welcomed the EU ambassadors' failure to reach a consensus on the full number of cases, but warned that this is likely merely a stay of execution, saying, “For now, EU governments and Big Sister surveillance extremists are [home affairs commissioner] Ylva Johansson failed to get a majority. But they are not giving up and may try again in the coming days. When will they learn from the EU Parliament that we need a new approach to child protection that is effective, can be challenged in court and can be passed with a simple majority?”
Proton founder Andy Yen responded to the Council's setback in a statement, making a similar point about the need to keep fighting. “We cannot become complacent,” he wrote. “Anti-encryption proposals have been defeated before, only to be repackaged and returned to the political stage again and again. It is crucial that privacy advocates remain vigilant and not be fooled by hype and pretense as the next assault on encryption begins.”
Celebrating the Council's continued division on the issue seems like something to be done cautiously, as member state governments appear to be just one step away from the majority needed to open consultations with MEPs. Once the talks begin, member states will likely immediately pressure their MPs to legislate mass scanning of citizens' devices despite their own opposition. “We are very close to a majority,” a Belgian spokesman told TechCrunch. “If just one country changes its mind, we will have a majority and can give the Council the mandate.”
The spokesman also said the agenda for the final Corepar meeting before the end of its six-month term next week was already full, suggesting talks would include reaching an agreement on the transfer of council powers to Hungary, which will hold the rotating council presidency for six months from July 1.
“For our part, as the presidency, we will continue to work at expert level over the next few days to see if any member states are not happy with the proposal and continue to discuss how it can be fine-tuned to make it workable for all,” the spokesman added. “And then it will be up to the next presidency to discuss.”
“From what we understand, they want to continue to work on this issue. The committee wants to do that, too. And the Legislature is waiting on us, so we need to do that too.”