The European Union is attempting to push through the controversial bill to weaken encryption of chat applications once again. Due to disagreement among member states, it is in jeopardy
The European bill to require chat applications to weaken their encryption protocols for law enforcement is back on the table. Now it’s Denmark, holding the rotating presidency of the European Council since July 1, that’s taking the lead. Academics and advocates for citizens’ privacy are once again sounding the alarm.
Ever since it was first discussed in 2022, the bill has been under fire. Opponents have dubbed it the ‘chat control’ law. The European Union, otherwise a pioneer in digital privacy, wants messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal to weaken end-to-end encryption, supposedly to combat child abuse. Law enforcement agencies like Europol are in favor of this.
600 Signatures
Six hundred privacy advocates from academia and the technology world have jointly shared an open letter to (once again) criticize the bill. The argument that weakening encryption would simplify the fight against child abuse does not outweigh the potentially significant consequences for citizens if government and police can read personal messages.
One of the six hundred signatures on the open letter comes from Belgian professor Bart Preneel, a cryptographer at KU Leuven. He is particularly concerned about the fact that the bill allows personal chat messages to be scanned with AI tools. “It is assumed that AI can do this reliably, which is not the case,” Preneel tells The Register.
Privacy Disaster for Citizens
This opinion is shared by other experts. The risk of false positives would be too high, which could put innocent citizens in a tight spot. Just imagine wanting to make your parents happy with a photo of their grandchild and having it labeled as child abuse by Europol. Moreover, law enforcement agencies can do their job more than adequately with current technology, including encryption.
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A vocal opponent from the technology sector is Signal. The messaging app invented the encryption protocol that WhatsApp also uses and wants to distinguish itself by extensively safeguarding user privacy. It’s gaining followers in Europe these days because of this. Signal promises to fight against the bill until the bitter end and would rather leave the EU than open its doors to governments.
A final counter-argument is that the bill also enables abuse for political motives. Those who think that only dictatorial regimes like China, North Korea, or Russia try to silence citizens are mistaken. Several EU member states, including Spain, Poland, and Hungary, have already been caught using spyware.
Disagreement among Member States
Fortunately, it seems unlikely that an agreement will be reached quickly. The member states still can’t agree on how far the bill can go. The German government shares a public statement stating that it cannot agree with the current proposal.
The Netherlands is also against it, while Belgium plays a more debatable role. Important nuance: Germany is not completely rejecting the bill and wants to reach a ‘compromise’ that could ultimately lead to legislation. A next vote is likely planned for October.
A similar bill has reached a further stage. The equally controversial Online Safety Act of the United Kingdom is gradually coming into effect. According to politicians, the law serves to protect children from ‘harmful content’ on online forums and social media, but that term is interpreted so broadly and subjectively that it seems more like censorship. It’s no coincidence that VPNs are more popular than ever in the United Kingdom.