Tech companies allowed to scan Europeans' chat messages for child abuse again
Tech services in the EU are once again allowed to scan chat messages for potential child abuse material. Officially, this was no longer permitted as of April, because a temporary exception to privacy legislation had expired. However, the Parliament is now extending that exception until 2028.
On Thursday, the European Parliament voted on an exception to privacy legislation allowing chat services to voluntarily scan message traffic for images of child abuse. The Parliament reintroduced the exception. There were 276 votes in favor, 314 against, and 17 abstentions. An absolute majority of 361 votes was needed to block the proposal. That was not achieved, so services like WhatsApp and Instagram are allowed to monitor private chats until at least 2028.
This temporary arrangement, which opponents also call 'Chat Control 1.0', had been in effect for some time but expired in April. The Parliament and the EU member states could not agree on what chat monitoring should look like. Through an unusual expedited procedure, the European People's Party has now finally put the unchanged proposal to a vote. This time, the Parliament did adopt the proposal.
**No permanent law yet**
Effectively, not much is changing right now. Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Snap paid little heed to the ban. In April, they stated that they would continue scanning chat messages 'to protect children online'.
The EU has also been working for years on a permanent law, also known as Chat Control 2.0. That law requires chat platforms to scan messages for child abuse. The European Parliament, the European Commission, and the EU member states have been unable to reach an agreement on this for years.
