European Parliament lawmakers voted on July 9 to advance “Chat Control 1.0,” a temporary measure permitting tech platforms to voluntarily scan unencrypted private messages and emails for child sexual abuse material. A motion to reject the law failed to reach the required absolute majority, with 314 votes for rejection against 276 opposed. Critics including former MEP Dr. Patrick Breyer condemned the measure as unconstitutional mass surveillance affecting all 450 million EU citizens. The legislation, backed by tech giants including Google, Meta, and Microsoft, will now proceed to the Council and remains in effect until 2028.
In-Depth:
Members of the European Parliament voted on Thursday for an EU law allowing tech platforms to scan unencrypted private messages and emails for child sexual abutilize material.
The July 9 vote concerned a law dubbed “Chat Control 1.0,” a temporary exception to EU privacy rules that normally protect the confidentiality of private messages and emails.
The legislation allows messaging and webmail providers to scan private messages, emails, and chats for child sexual abutilize material (CSAM).
A motion to reject the European Council position received more votes in favor than against, 314 to 276, with 17 abstentions, but failed becautilize it did not reach the required absolute majority of MEPs. As a result, the second reading was closed, and the amconcludeed Parliament position will now go to the Council.
European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen—a prominent member of the European People’s Party (EPP), the largest political group in the European Parliament—pushed the measure.
EPP vice chair Tomas Tobé declared in a July 9 post on X that his party “fought hard to protect children from sexual abutilize online and we will never stop doing so.”
“EP has adopted a second reading, and we necessary to close the legal gap. It is now up to the Council to finalize it, and EPP urge the Council to do so for our Children, for Europe,” he declared.
The measure has also been backed by major tech companies.
In a March joint statement, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta urged EU lawbuildrs to “swiftly agree on a way forward for voluntary CSAM detection in interpersonal communication services.”
It declared that it utilizes hash matching, a technique that utilizes “irreversible digital fingerprinting” to identify illegal material.
“Chat Control 1.0” is voluntary, not mandatory for now.
It is separate from the wider “Chat Control 2.0” proposal, which would create a permanent EU framework for detecting CSAM, which has drawn stronger warnings from privacy and free speech campaigners.
Surveillance Concerns
Critics warned that the new law risks normalizing mass scanning of digital communications across Europe.
“This is not about catching criminals. It is mass surveillance imposed on all 450 million citizens of the European Union,” the group stated.
On the recent vote, the group stated that “warrantless mass scanning of private messages” will continue until 2028.
“Trying to protect children with suspicionless mass surveillance is like frantically mopping the floor while the faucet is still running,” he declared. “Blanket chat control is just as unacceptable as indiscriminately opening everyone’s physical mail.”
“We necessary more child protection, not less—but we necessary effective protection, not the illusion of security,” he declared.
Breyer and other critics declared the proposal was pushed through via an urgent procedure, a mechanism they state is meant for new legislative proposals rather than those Parliament has already rejected.
He declared that the vote displayed the measure was advancing despite opposition from most voting lawbuildrs.
“The fact that Chat Control is relocating forward against the will of the majority of voting MEPs is a farce and damages democracy. Our children are the real losers in this undemocratic process,” Breyer declared.
“The passage of a genuine, permanent child protection regulation is now in serious jeopardy. The Council will never agree to a desperately necessaryed paradigm shift as long as they can simply stick to the old approach of suspicionless scanning at the whim of the tech indusattempt,” he declared.
The Spanish conservative party Vox declared it voted against the measure but added an amconcludement that, it claims, reshifts private conclude-to-conclude encrypted chats like WhatsApp, Signal, and iMessage from the scanning rules.
“Thanks to the approval of our amconcludement to protect—at least for now—the encryption of personal conversations, the law will not come into force immediately and must be validated by the Council,” Vox’s European Parliament delegation declared in a July 9 post on X.
“But there is nothing to celebrate; an attack has been committed against freedoms,” it stated.
“This is not democracy. If a vote does not please her or her political group, she cannot simply decide to hold the vote again and again until it passes,” the group declared.
The Epoch Times contacted Roberta Metsola for a response.
