"Voluntary Chat Control": EU Parliament for extension with restrictions

The EU Parliament approved a renewed extension of “voluntary chat control” to combat child sexual abuse in Strasbourg on Wednesday. After the initiative surprisingly failed in the responsible committee a week ago, MEPs are now attaching clear restrictions to the extension.

The regulation creates a temporary exception to European data protection rules, allowing messaging services to scan chats for depictions of child sexual abuse. There is currently no agreement on a long-term solution, as desired by the EU Commission and member states.

Chats are private

Providers of messaging services automatically scan their platforms for digital traces of child pornography. The search for adults who prey on minors (“grooming”) is also under debate. Because this violates the EU directive on the protection of privacy, the EU hastily created an exception regulation in 2021.

This exception regulation, which has already been extended once, is valid until the beginning of April and was supposed to be renewed until April 2028 at the request of the EU Commission. Last week, however, the Commission's proposal surprisingly failed in Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.

In a new compromise, Parliament has now agreed to an extension until August 2027. At the same time, MEPs voted for a clear limitation of powers to search for already known material, and only for users or groups suspected of concrete wrongdoing. Furthermore, encrypted chats should not be affected.

“This exception, which I support, is a temporary, strictly limited instrument that allows providers to continue their voluntary detection measures under certain conditions,” says the responsible rapporteur for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Birgit Sippel (SPD). “The extension must also maintain end-to-end encryption.”

These restrictions correspond to Parliament's draft for a long-term solution. These will be the subject of upcoming negotiations with the Commission and member states. Only when an agreement is reached here can the renewed extension come into force.

No arbitrary chat control

There is currently no majority in Parliament for far-reaching surveillance powers such as arbitrary chat control. The Council of Member States has also moved away from this after a long struggle. However, this does not make a permanent “voluntary” solution any easier, especially since it also affects the fundamental rights of EU citizens.

While the Commission and member states want to make the controversial exception regulation permanent, the EU Parliament insists on significant restrictions. For example, error-prone technologies such as AI should not be used in the search for child pornographic depictions. Scanning text messages for grooming attempts should also remain prohibited.

(vbr)