The Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse, also known simply as "Chat Control", is a regulation proposed in the European Commission back in 2022. Although there are nuances to its implementation, it basically enforces a framework that allows tech companies and platform vendors to detect and report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) stored on phones. It has faced major criticism and resistance from multiple groups advocating for better privacy, but now, discussion about the regulation has erupted again.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has written a detailed piece criticizing the regulation after it was reported that Denmark is bringing the proposal to the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on October 14 again. The nonprofit argues that it is absurd that the Danish Presidency is claiming that Chat Control does not break end-to-end encryption (E2EE), when it is so obvious that it does through scanning and surveilling of devices.
It emphasizes that the inevitable abuse of Chat Control by governments could be disastrous for whistleblowers, activists, journalists, and human rights workers who rely greatly on privacy and secrecy. The EFF has also highlighted that Signal has threatened to pull its app from the EU if Chat Control becomes law.
It"s important to note that it"s not only the EU which will be affected by Chat Control. If you"re outside of Europe but you are communicating with someone who is in Europe, your chats will automatically be compromised. The EFF has noted the high potential for abuse, especially from governments who will demand access to messaging apps to spy on high value citizens.
The group went on to say that:
We urge the Danish Presidency to drop its push for scanning our private communication and consider fundamental rights concerns. Any draft that compromises end-to-end encryption and permits scanning of our private communication should be blocked or voted down.
Phones and laptops must work for the users who own them, not act as “bugs in our pockets” in the service of governments, foreign or domestic. The mass scanning of everything on our devices is invasive, untenable, and must be rejected.
Chat Control faces stiff opposition from critics, but it remains to be seen if this resistance is strong enough to actually vote the regulation out indefinitely.