The EU is temporarily abandoning its plan to mandate backdoors for mass surveillance in apps like WhatsApp and Signal, following opposition from experts and several member states.
Chat control is temporarily off the table. That was the name coined by opponents for a legislative proposal that would dramatically erode the privacy and online security of European citizens. In the name of fighting child abuse – a textbook example of the ‘Think of the children’ argument – proponents wanted to mandate backdoors for mass surveillance in all chat apps like WhatsApp, Signal, or Facebook Messenger.
Pressure from Member States and Experts
Under pressure from experts and member states, including the very vocal Germany, Denmark – a supporter of the system and current Council president – is now removing the mandate from the planned directive on child abuse. Germany positioned itself as an outspoken opponent and called the planned directive disproportionate. The Netherlands was also clearly against it. Belgium played a more questionable role and showed itself to be more supportive.
A call for voluntary message scanning remains, but neither Meta nor Signal supports this. Signal even threatened to leave the EU if Chat control became law.
Backdoor for Europol
The measures would require communication platform providers to search users’ private conversations for images of child abuse and then report them to relevant authorities. The fight against child abuse is often invoked to stifle factual discussions about what is actually being proposed: after all, who wants to be in the pro-child abuse camp?
read also
Belgian Europol boss wants to be able to read your messages: why that’s a disaster especially for citizens
In practice, government and security services like Europol are very eager to read along in chat messages, which is not easily possible today thanks to end-to-end encryption. The proposal called for a backdoor built into messaging apps, where automatic scans of private messages would take place on users’ devices.
Door Open for Mass Surveillance
Initially, this surveillance technology would be used to detect images of child abuse, even though there is currently no technically sound system to do this. ‘AI’ without much explanation would then have to provide the solution.
Some supporters like Child Focus meant well but struggled with a misunderstanding of what they were actually asking for. Child Focus stated that images would be compared with an existing database of child abuse photos to only take action that way. That sounds good, until you realize that any form of access to private chats, however small intended, equals total access.
read also
Controversial European ‘Chat Control’ Law Called into Question (Again)
On a technical level, there is no middle ground: once the backdoor exists, it can be used for everything, even secretly. This is not an unrealistic scenario: several EU member states including Poland, Hungary, and Spain already use spyware for surveillance.
Contrary to Reality
Chat control is a frustrating concept according to the many experts who have already shed light on the plan. It is mathematically impossible to guarantee privacy through end-to-end encryption and safely and limitedly monitor messages. The latter cannot be done and always ends in a backdoor that fundamentally undermines citizens’ privacy and opens the door to further government abuse, not to mention the additional risk of abuse by malicious actors.
read also
WhatsApp Alternative Signal Growing Rapidly in Europe: What Is It, and Why Is the App Popular?
The proposal also completely ignores the reality that it is simple for criminals to illegally install an unregulated application and thus circumvent chat control oversight. This way you end up with mass surveillance of law-abiding citizens, without more insight into what criminals are doing. The fact that security services already have plenty of tools today to do their job well is another important counterargument.
Staying Vigilant
Yet lawmakers keep trying to smuggle surveillance in somehow through a new legislative proposal. Chat control is