The European Parliament has decided to scrap voluntary measures regarding the monitoring of chat messages. The controversial ‘Chat Control’ law is gradually becoming terminal, though not yet fully buried.
On Thursday, the European Parliament once again had to consider whether or not to allow the monitoring of messaging applications. The vote concerned voluntary measures as an extension of the controversial EU law. With 311 votes against and 228 in favor, it was decided not to extend voluntary monitoring any further.
The deadline for the voluntary measures was extended several times, serving as a transition period until an agreement was reached on mandatory chat control. This time, parliamentarians voted against a further extension. As of April 3, the monitoring of chat traffic by messaging apps will once again be completely prohibited.
Disagreement among Member States
Voluntary chat control allows messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal to open up users’ message traffic under very exceptional circumstances. This can happen, for example, when an individual is suspected of child abuse. With a legislative proposal, dubbed ‘Chat Control’ by critics, the EU wants to make that voluntary backdoor mandatory.
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Member states cannot agree on what the legislation should look like and how far it should go. Germany and the Netherlands, among others, are vocal opponents, while Belgium’s role in the matter is more ambiguous. The disagreement over mandatory chat control is now trickling down to the voluntary measures, which Parliament has ended with this vote. As a result, encrypted message traffic between EU citizens may not be opened up to authorities under any jurisdiction.
Buried, but not yet dead
The European Union is still trying to push the legislative proposal through, although it seems unlikely that member states will reach an agreement anytime soon. The law is controversial because it theoretically undermines the individual privacy of all EU citizens. Under the guise of combating child abuse, messaging apps would be required to deliberately build a backdoor into their encryption protocols for Europol.
In addition to several member states, privacy experts and even the messaging apps themselves are opposed to the law. After all, the law provides no protection against potential abuse by governments for espionage. Signal, for example, has already threatened to leave the EU if the law were ever to pass.