Background information
EU police want access to encrypted communication – a detailed look
by Florian Bodoky
"Chat control" not coming for the time being - vote fails due to German "no" vote
21/6/2024
Translation: machine translated
Several EU countries want to have content in their citizens' messenger apps monitored preventively. This should have been voted on yesterday in the EU Council. However, as an agreement seemed unlikely, the vote was postponed indefinitely.
On 20 June, the European Council was due to vote on the draft law on so-called chat control. The Belgian "light version" of the law came under fire from various data protection institutions as well as some EU member states. Nevertheless, the Council Presidency, which is currently still under the Belgian Presidency, wanted to decide on the paper during its term of office. On 1 July, the Council presidency will pass to the member state Hungary for the next six months.
However, this plan has failed for the time being. Although the former opponent of the law, France, is now more favourable towards the project due to some compromises, the Council Presidency has removed the vote from the agenda.
In principle, Council business is only decided on topics where a majority in favour can be expected. This was not the case with chat control. Germany in particular, in the person of Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), clearly signalled its intention to vote against the bill. In addition, a total of 36 politicians of all colours have written an open letter to the member states and appealed to them to vote against the proposal.
The topic is back on the table
However, the topic has not been forgotten. The dossier will almost certainly be pursued further under the Hungarian Council Presidency. Like Belgium, Hungary is in favour of chat control. The question is therefore not if, but when chat control will become a topic again.
The reason for the uproar is the disproportionality of the project, which has been criticised by critics. The Belgian police in particular want to ensure that private chat conversations in the European Union can be viewed in plain text by law enforcement authorities - in order to prevent the distribution of child pornography material. However, this would jeopardise data protection and human rights in the EU.
The current, weakened idea of "exclusive" control of image and video material - without text - also goes too far for data protectionists. Although users could reject this control, this would completely block the function for sending image and video material.
Meanwhile, messenger suppliers Signal and Threema have already announced that they will review whether to withdraw their products from the European market in the event of such a measure. <p
Header image: Shutterstock
I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.
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