Germany has come out against Chat Control and now its position tilts the plan. The proposed law seeks to force messaging, email and social network platforms — such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram or Gmail — to automatically scan users’ messages, images and files to identify any illegal content, in particular child pornography material. The regulation raised concerns related to user privacy and Germany’s no comes less than a week before the EU Council vote scheduled for on October 14th.
The Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (Csar) – this is the official name even if everyone is using Chat Control – it requires a to be approved qualified majoritytherefore the support of at least the 55% of Member States which overall represent at least the 65% of the Union’s population. But with Germany against it, a new scenario opens up. To understand better we spoke to Nicola Bernardipresident of Federprivacy.
The European Union Paradox and Chat Control
Critics warn that the AI-based scanning systems envisaged in the European proposal are at risk of compromising end-to-end encryptionexposing all digital communications to potential violations and abuses. As Bernandi explains, “if the text proposed by the European Commission were to be approved without the necessary changes being made, messaging and email platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram or Gmail would automatically scan each of our messages, images or videos with the aim of verifying whether they contain child pornography material or solicitation attempts aimed at minors”.
European parliamentarians are inundated with an avalanche of identical emails: the Chat Control case
A method that can have complex effects: “By doing so, a indiscriminate mass surveillance which would put under control all the private communications of hundreds of millions of users to try to find a small number of criminals“. This approach, explains Bernardi, “would paradoxically violate the fundamental rights that the EU itself has recognized to its citizens, thus trampling on the constitutional principles and democratic values on which the European Union is based.”
Why is it so difficult to reach an agreement
The Chat Control case has been going on for years. There European Commission had first presented the proposal in 2022, with the aim of stemming the spread of online child pornography material. Now national governments are trying to find one common position from which to start, but the disagreements on the topic of digital surveillance and privacy protection continue to make the path extremely complex.
“Child pornography and child abuse are obviously phenomena that must be fought severely, but we need to act with common sense, even if it is not easy to find solutions that are truly effective and respect users’ privacy, and massive control over the tools commonly used by users is not at all,” Bernardi explained to Fanpage.it. “First of all, algorithms are not infallible, they can generate many false positives which would lead to investigate innocent peoplebut above all crime professionals certainly don’t use WhatsApp and Gmailrather they make use of the Dark Web.”
According to Bernardi, it is useless to look at the finger instead of the moon, ignoring that most child pornography contents circulate in the deepest and most uncontrolled murky waters of the Internet. “Although perfect solutions probably don’t existin any case preventive checks should only be carried out in the presence of a well-founded suspicion as happens with investigations into organized crime. But if you really had to resort to preventive and generalized checksthen you should do them on the Dark Web and not on the public network, which is why in my opinion the Chat Control Regulation proposal must be torn up.”
When security becomes surveillance: the EU at the crossroads
According to data collected by fightchatcontrol.euat present the situation among the EU member states appears fragmented: the countries opposed include Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia; among the favorable ones are found Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Spain; In the end, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Slovakia and Sweden they still remain undecided.
“Germany takes a position consistent with the ideals on which the European Union was founded and with fundamental rights which for many decades have united all Member States. But if those pillars were now questioned or even set aside, the risk is not only that of citizens’ privacy, but of the very cohesion of the entire EU“, explained Bernardi. “The hope is therefore that both Germany and the other member states that delay in firmly opposing the creation of a society of mass control will find unity of thought while holding firm to the founding principles of the European Union“.
