Spahn: "There will be no unprovoked chat control with us"

The debate on chat control is gaining momentum shortly before the decisive EU Council meeting. On Tuesday afternoon, Jens Spahn (CDU), head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, rejected the controversial measure. "We in the CDU/CSU parliamentary group are against the monitoring of chats without cause," Spahn told journalists in Berlin in the afternoon. As heise online learnt from parliamentary group circles, chat control will not be put to a vote in the Council for now.

"That would be like opening all letters as a precaution and seeing if there's anything forbidden in them," said Spahn. "That's not possible, it won't happen with us." At the same time, however, it is clear that child abuse must be combated, emphasised the parliamentary group leader, and praised the EU initiative. A regulation must protect children effectively "without jeopardising the security and confidentiality of individual communication".

Occasion or not

The sticking point is the word "without cause". The Union thus rejects generalised mass surveillance. However, the technology would also have to be massively weakened to allow third parties access to the content to monitor encrypted chats on an ad hoc basis. This would break the end-to-end encryption between clients.

The renewed push for chat control is being led by the Danish Council Presidency under the banner of combating child abuse. The EU Parliament is firmly opposed to drastically restricting the fundamental right to communication protected from state access. The EU Council of Member States was originally due to vote on the issue next week.

So far, a minority in the Council comprising Germany, Poland, Austria, and the Netherlands has prevented a decision. Should one of the four fall over, the blocking minority would be gone.

In the German government, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) has so far shown himself to be open to the Danes' initiative. The SPD remains opposed to chat control and welcomed Spahn's comments. It was good that the CDU/CSU agreed with the concerns, said Sonja Eichwede, deputy leader of the SPD parliamentary group. "Protecting children is key, but monitoring private communication without suspicion is the wrong approach."

Parliamentary group needs to talk

It had already become apparent while the day that there was still a need to talk. Dobrindt's Ministry of the Interior and Stefanie Hubig's (SPD) Ministry of Justice had agreed in principle on a harmonised position. However, the federal government then realised that the parliamentary groups supporting it also had their views.

This led to sharp criticism of the fact that the new coalition had not yet been able to adequately discuss the issues surrounding the planned ordinance. Now that the regulation has been discussed for three years, there is no reason to push through a German position within a few hours without thorough consultation with the MPs in the Bundestag, according to parliamentary group circles.

There is widespread opposition to the EU plans. The operators of the messenger Signal have announced that they will shut down their service in the EU if politicians undermine encryption. Other messenger services have also criticised the plan. IT associations, civil rights organisations and media associations have also voiced harsh criticism.

(vbr)