If you’ve scrolled through TikTok, Instagram or Youtube lately, chances are you’ve stumbled upon dramatic clamis about new European rules supposedely designed to “control” private chats and mark the end of end-to-end encryption. But what’s real? What’s just hype? How might this proposal actually affect our daily life?
Now, the fight moved on after years of ongoing lobbying, with an agreement between governments on the allowance of online messaging apps to scan content in order to stop sexual abuse of children.
What Chat Control really is
“Chat Control” is the nickname given to the European Commission’s proposal 2022/0155 to fight the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online. First drafted in 2022, it has recently gained momentum and resonance as EU has never been this closer to finalising the legislative process in support of its application, with 15 countries issuing it.
According to the regulation draft, the idea behind is to make digital platforms, ranging from messaging apps to cloud services, more responsible for detecting and removing illegal content specifically on minors.
The proposal asks providers to:
- Detect and report CSAM shared on their devices;
- Scan content, including private messages, if ordered by authorities under strict conditions;
- Take preventive measures to reduce risks, such as better moderation and safer product design;
- And lastly, to support law enforcement in protecting children and prosecuting offenders.
Where the disinformation kicks in
Critics warn that Chat Control could undermine end-to-end encryption by forcing platforms to scan even private, encrypted messages. Unsurprisingly, fears of an “Orwellian” future have fuelled waves of disinformation online, and subsequent fear for each-own’s privacy, such as:
- Myth n. 1: the EU will spy on every message. In reality, providers would only be required to scan content if a specific detection order is issued by an authority. It’s not universal, automatic surveillance.
- Myth n. 2: encryption will be banned. Even if encryption, accordingly to the official document, would be still guaranteed, the debate is whether scanning tools can coexist with true end-to-end encryption without weakening it.
- Myth n. 3: Chat Control targets normal users. On the other hand, the focus is explicitly on detecting and removing CSAM. Still, critics argue that the technology used could affect everyone’s privacy.
What it could mean for ordinary people
If adopted, Chat Control could really affect the apps that 450 million of EU citizens use daily: Whatsapp, Telegram, iCloud, and so on. For everyday users, this might translate into:
- More safety tools to report abuse and protect minors if they encounter illecit content;
- Possible changes in how encrypted app work, depending on whether detection technologies can be applied without undermining security;
- Greater accountability for platforms, which would have to prove they are taking risks serioursly.
At the same time, it is true that there are legitimate concerns about privacy, data protection and freedom of expression, and not only coming from disinformation: a review on the regulation conducted by the Danish authorities has confirmed the serious issues of compliance with Article 7 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, questioning the negative impact on cybersecurity, the effective ensurance of child protection and the compability with the respect of the fundamental rights of citizens.
The debte raises a crucial question: even if not today, could Chat Control pose a risk by setting a possibly dangerous precedent for broader online surveillance in the future that goes beyond these rights? And, by this, underming democracy with lasting consequences?
Civil rights group like Fight Chat Control – Protect Digital Privacy think so. They argue that even well-intentioned scanning will surely open the door to wider surveillance in the future. Their stance is backed by an open letter recently released by 617 among scientist, cryptograhers and security researchers, urging governments to reject the final draft of the proposal as it would undermine not only citizens’ privacy and free experession, but also cybersecurity,, from economy and national security.
Chat Control sits at the crossroads of two fundamental values: protecting children from horrific abuse, and safeguarding everyone’s right to privacy and secure communication. The disinformation around it, from claims like “they’ll read all your chats” to “encryption is over”, simplifies a debate that is far more nuanced and needs a deep comprehension of these dynamics, which blend into wider topics.
For now, what’s certain is that the EU is pushing platforms to take responsibility, while experts, privacy advocates and lawmakers wrestle with how to do so without breaking the trust and security that private messaging is built on. How to achieve this without undermining these rights remains an open and urgent question to address.