In the debate about a law against child abuse on the Internet, the responsible committee of the EU Parliament voted against the monitoring of encrypted chats. He only wants to allow “chat controls” if there is specific suspicion.
The EU Parliament’s Interior Committee has defined its position on the controversial EU draft law on so-called “chat control”. A large majority of MPs voted in favor of a counter-proposal in which the unfounded surveillance of private communications originally planned by the EU Commission was deleted.
According to MPs, internet providers should be obliged to make their services safer in order to prevent sexual exploitation of minors from the outset. Encrypted communication, however, should remain protected.
EU Commission for “chat controls”
Last year, the EU Commission presented a proposal for a regulation to curb the spread of images depicting the sexual abuse of children. The proposal stipulated that providers such as Google or Facebook could, under certain circumstances, be required to use software to search their services for relevant representations.
Critics use the keyword “chat control” for this. They see this as an attempt to scan all communication on the Internet, including encrypted messages, and fear mass surveillance.
EU states still without a common line
The MPs now want to weaken the proposal in some areas, for example the end-to-end encryption of chats should not be allowed to be cracked.
If no objections are raised at the plenary session in Strasbourg next week, there will no longer be a need to vote on it and negotiations with the EU states could begin. However, they have not yet found a common position, also due to concerns from Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP).
No “blank check” for them mass surveillance”
The domestic policy spokeswoman for the CDU/CSU group, Lena Düpont, said after the MPs’ meeting in Brussels that Parliament’s position literally turned the EU Commission’s extremely controversial draft on its head.
Left-wing MP Cornelia Ernst made a similar statement. In their words, the original proposal would have been a “blank check for mass surveillance.” Düpont emphasized that an “appropriate balance had been found to strengthen the protection of children and to establish urgently needed preventive measures systematically and in a targeted manner.”
Birgit Sippel (SPD), domestic policy spokeswoman for the Social Democrats in the EU Parliament, explained: “There is no question that we have to protect children from abuse on the Internet. But this must not be at the expense of everyone’s fundamental rights and in particular the right to privacy and confidentiality Communication happens.”
Instead of reacting to abuse that has already occurred with constant monitoring, as in the Commission proposal, the parliamentary draft contains a stronger focus on preventative measures. The FDP MP Moritz Körner spoke of a stage victory against “chat control”. In the upcoming negotiations with the EU member states, the preservation of fundamental rights will have to continue to be defended.