1/5📍 #ChatControl: Today, following a lot of public pressure, representatives of the EU member states have finally agreed on their position to remove arguably the most controversial part of the #CSARegulation: the requirement for message and email services to scan users' private communications.
🔑 This is a key development. We, along with hundreds of experts, have criticised this part of the law for undermining the presumption of innocence and posing an existential threat to #encryption.
2/5 🤔 What does it mean going forward?
✅ The European Parliament's position also rules out forced mass scanning and protects encrypted communications. With the Council's position also reiterating this, it's likely that the final deal on #CSAR will not undermine the confidentiality and integrity of the people of Europe's secure encrypted chats with friends, families, doctors, lawyers and more.
The Council's press release about their position ➡️ https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2025/11/26/child-sexual-abuse-council-reaches-position-on-law-protecting-children-from-online-abuse/
3/5 🚫 The Council's version still allows so-called "voluntary" detection. This means that Big Tech companies can decide to scan your personal messages, without suspicion that you're doing anything wrong, and apply error-prone predictive AI tools to look for evidence of abuse. This sort of scanning already happens, with very little transparency and and oversight, and no proper legal basis.
4/5 🚫 The Council's text also requires providers of many different online services to take steps to mitigate the risks posed by their platforms.
Sounds great in theory but providers could be forced to take measures which may create more harms such as forcing private messages (chats, emails etc.), app stores, and others deemed "risky" to use age verification or assessment tools. This can undermine hashtag#privacy and pose a major chilling effect on people's freedoms.
