By Lauren Smith, European Conservative. (Photo: Creative Christians/Unsplash)
or years, the European Union has been fighting to access your private messages. Brussels desperately wants the ability to read every single piece of digital communication sent by an EU citizen—that includes texts, emails, DMs on social media apps like X, TikTok, or Instagram, and even messages sent via end-to-end encrypted services like Telegram and WhatsApp. None of your private conversations would be private any longer.
This idea was put forward in 2022, as part of the Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSAR). The aim of this measure, called Chat Control, was to sniff out illegal content—specifically child pornographic material—and forward it to the authorities. In theory, AI technology would be used to scan the contents of every message before it is encrypted—that is, before it is scrambled into unreadable code that only the recipient can decipher. This aspect of the legislation proved too controversial for many member states, and it was rejected in the European Parliament.
Now, though, the EU wants to try again. Upon taking over the presidency of the EU council last month, Denmark has made Chat Control a priority. Leaked minutes from a meeting of the Law Enforcement Working Party of the EU Council reveal that mass surveillance is firmly back on the agenda, with states attempting to smooth over previous disagreements. As it stands, 15 out of 27 nations back the plans, with some countries, such as Spain, even pushing for an outright ban of end-to-end encrypted messaging services. The Netherlands and Austria are bound by parliamentary votes before being able to support mandatory scanning, and Luxembourg and Slovenia say they are “not yet convinced.” Belgium, Poland, and Estonia are cautious, too. Poland did propose a suggestion to only target unencrypted messages and those individuals who were already under suspicion, but this was rejected, meaning that any legislation that materialises from this is likely to apply to everyone, everywhere.