Chat Control: EU Pushes Through Mass Surveillance Despite Rejection by MEPs
The measure passed despite a 314-276 rejection vote and gives tech firms until April 2028 to scan private messages, lawmakers said.
- The European Parliament adopted Chat Control 1.0 on Monday, enabling tech companies to voluntarily scan private messages until April 2028 after an opposition motion received 314 votes, falling short of the required 361 absolute majority.
- Often termed a "legislative zombie" by MEPs due to repeated defeats, the proposal originated as a temporary 2021 measure to detect child sexual abuse material, enabling companies to monitor private communications with legal EU backing.
- Critics warn the regulation suspends EU privacy laws to allow platforms to "mass-scan" users' private messages. The legislation excludes messages sent with "end to end encryption," though privacy advocates argue the measure fundamentally undermines digital communication security.
- Svenja Hahn, President of the liberal ALDE group in the European Parliament, denounced the passage as "a disgrace." MEP Vistisen claimed "essential freedom rights are now under attack from the EU," reflecting broader opposition concerns.
- Lawmakers are already negotiating Chat Control 2.0, a proposed iteration that would mandate company scanning and extend requirements to "end to end encryption," raising further privacy concerns beyond the current voluntary framework's scope.
16 Articles
16 Articles
The European Parliament has adopted amendments to the rules for the detection of child sexual abuse online. The new guidelines of the so-called Chat Control 1.0 delete encrypted communications. The set of measures that limit the privacy of technological communications is the pretext for the analysis of European Volt leaders.
Are we all going to live under suspicion? Probably yes. This is the conclusion that can be drawn from what happened in the European Parliament with the vote on Chat Control 1.0.
Chat Control 1.0 allows certain platforms to analyze messages on a voluntary basis, but the extension voted in July has not yet entered into force
EU pulls procedural dodge to extend snooping on private messages
The European Union has pulled a procedural trick to ram through “Chat Control 1.0” (CC1). CC1 suspends normal EU privacy laws so that tech platforms can ‘mass-scan’ users’ private messages for government. European Parliament members had already rejected the proposal twice because of the dangers it poses to privacy. The proposal is what MEPs term a “legislative zombie” – defeated repeatedly but resurrected over and over until it gets through. So …
EU parliament lets Meta and Google keep scanning users’ messages, in a win for ‘Chat Control’ backers. What it means – and why it matters
First published in Deník N. MEPs have voted on whether Big Tech companies such as Meta, Google and Microsoft should have the right to scan our unencrypted messages and emails for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Although a majority of lawmakers opposed it, a legislative trick used by the European Parliament meant that the message-scanning proposal passed. Tech companies can continue to read the messages we write using their applications until…
Hungarian Conservative
ussanews.comChat Control: EU Pushes Through Mass Surveillance Despite Rejection by MEPs
The European Parliament has adopted Chat Control 1.0, a renewed regulation that allows major tech companies to voluntarily scan private messages of their users. The content of the regulation itself has gotten major pushback from European citizens and politicians alike. However, the way it was adopted added even further ‘insult to injury’. The European Council sent back the proposal to Parliament in late June, right before the beginning of the su…
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