Chat Control: Federal Government Pleased, Criticism from the European Parliament

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After the withdrawal from the demand of the Danish Presidency and other member states for mandatory filtering of content in the fight against depictions of sexual abuse, known as chat control, reactions are mixed.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior welcomed on behalf of the federal government at noon that the Danish Presidency will now present a new proposal in a timely manner that is likely to be more consensus-oriented among member states. The ministry, headed by Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), is the lead agency. The aim is to find a "broadly supported regulation" at the European level.

Concrete aspects of the now planned regulations praised Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD): "Above all, the important, but currently time-limited, opportunities for providers to voluntarily uncover and report sexual abuse of children are being placed on a stable and permanent basis." This would not cross any red lines, according to the Social Democrat. Currently, there is only a temporary exemption for providers, allowing them – without becoming criminally liable or facing liability themselves – to actively search with filtering mechanisms for data of their users stored in their hosting services. For example, on social media platforms, for child pornography or abuse depictions. This is primarily used by the major US providers, who then usually share their findings with the responsible authorities in the respective country via the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), or the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) for Germany. The CSA Regulation aims to establish a European authority to receive such reports and then inform other authorities in the EU member states more precisely and thus with less delay.

Voluntary filtering also remains controversial

However, a party colleague relevant to the CSA dossier assesses the situation completely differently from the Justice Minister: The Danish Presidency has put "nothing really new" on the table, criticizes MEP Birgit Sippel in response to a query from heise online. "Leaving it up to the platforms whether they monitor is tantamount to refusing to take political responsibility, regardless of whether they expect the platforms to engage in such activities or not," says Sippel, who has been intensively involved in all European legislative proposals related to data protection and surveillance for the Social Democrats for years. "Therefore, I stand by my position: the Council should adopt the Parliament's position to finally end the blockade and act quickly."

By this, Sippel means initiating the so-called trilogue procedure. If the member states – which is now more likely than before – agree on a common position in the Council of Interior Ministers in December, negotiations on the legal text can then begin between Parliament, the Presidency for the member states, and the EU Commission. So far, the Council's position has been missing – the fact that time is now running short again until the transitional regulation expires is due to the years of negotiations between the member states.

Support for Sippel's position comes from the German Lawyers' Association. Its president, Stefan von Raumer, praised the end of the previous plans but warned of an "immense risk for bearers of professional secrecy, such as lawyers." This also applies to the voluntary monitoring carried out by the platforms.

Trilogue must happen quickly

The debate surrounding the CSA Regulation's content is therefore still not strictly along party political lines; critics and proponents of planned measures can be found in almost all party families, and the European Parliament often votes on such contentious issues not along faction lines. Therefore, even if a compromise were to be negotiated in the trilogue in the coming months, a majority in the Council of Member States as well as in the European Parliament would still have to approve it for the regulation to enter into force.

Justice Minister: IP data retention indispensable

"In a state governed by the rule of law, the ends never justify the means. Fundamental civil rights must also be preserved in the digital space," says Stefanie Hubig. However, the social democratic Justice Minister now praises data retention, which has also caused controversy within her party for years, as one of the essential means for more effective combating of abuse depictions online. "The introduction of mandatory IP address retention is indispensable for this. We will soon present proposals that combine effective prosecution with the protection of fundamental rights." In reality, however, there are no statistics that would plausibly suggest a better detection rate for corresponding offenses in the EU states, some of which have had IP data retention for many years.

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