{"id":1571188,"date":"2025-09-11T12:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T16:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1571188"},"modified":"2025-09-11T12:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T16:05:00","slug":"eu-chat-control-hinges-on-germanys-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/eu-chat-control-hinges-on-germanys-decision\/1571188\/","title":{"rendered":"EU ‘Chat Control’ Hinges On Germany’s Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

EU ‘Chat Control’ Hinges On Germany’s Decision<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Aaron Wood via CoinTelegraph.com,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

As the EU Council heads to vote on the so-called \u201cChat Control\u201d law, Germany could prove the deciding factor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Put forward by Denmark, the law would essentially eliminate encrypted messaging<\/strong>, requiring services such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal to allow regulators to screen messages before they are encrypted and sent.<\/p>\n

Legislators from 15 member states of the EU have indicated support for the bill, but those countries do not constitute at least 65% of the EU population, meaning they need additional support.<\/p>\n

Germany has been on the fence about supporting the law, and it could deal a major blow to privacy in Europe if it decides to support it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

EU Chat Control bill aims to fight child abuse<\/h2>\n

The Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), or \u201cChat Control\u201d regulation, was first introduced by then-European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson in 2022. It aims to fight the spread of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) through, among other things, screening messages before they are encrypted. The law has previously failed to achieve the support necessary to move forward.<\/p>\n

On July 1, the first day of Denmark\u2019s presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU Council), the country\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0the directive would receive \u201chigh priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of Denmark\u2019s six-month presidency of the council, member states have been solidifying their positions, which they are expected to finalize before a meeting on Sept. 12 and an eventual vote on Oct. 14.<\/p>\n

The supporting block needs more support to comprise 65% of the EU population and obtain a qualified majority. <\/strong>Six countries\u00a0remain<\/a>\u00a0undecided, according to Fight Chat Control, an activist group opposed to the regulation:<\/p>\n

Estonia<\/p>\n

Germany<\/p>\n

Greece<\/p>\n

Luxembourg\u00a0<\/p>\n

Romania<\/p>\n

Slovenia.<\/p>\n

Among these countries, Germany is necessary to sway the outcome of the EU Council vote.<\/strong> Its 83 million citizens would\u00a0bring<\/a>\u00a0the population of countries supporting Chat Control to some 322 million, or 71% of the EU. The other five countries combined, even if they voted in support, do not make up a large enough segment of the population.<\/p>\n

Per Fight Chat Control, many German members of the European Parliament (MEPs) oppose the draft law. Citing documents from a July 11 meeting\u00a0leaked<\/a>\u00a0to German publication Netzpolitik.org, it found opposition to Chat Control across the political spectrum. MEPs from the B\u00fcndnis 90\/Die Gr\u00fcnen and Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland \u2014 respectively representing the center-left and far-right of German opposition politics \u2014 oppose Chat Control.<\/p>\n

However, an equally large number of parliamentarians from the ruling Social Democrats, Christian Democrats and Social Democratic Union of Bavaria are reportedly uncommitted.<\/p>\n

Some are concerned that these uncommitted lawmakers could be inclined to take existing German law and apply it to the entire EU.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Germany already has laws that allow police to circumvent encryption used by popular messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Signal. In 2021, the Bundestag amended laws to\u00a0allow<\/a>\u00a0the police to intercept communications of \u201cpersons against whom no suspicion of a crime has yet been established and therefore no criminal procedure measure can yet be ordered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Software developer and privacy rights advocate Jikra Knesl\u00a0said<\/a>, \u201cA form of ChatControl already exists in Germany. Companies like Meta are sharing their reports with the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

If expanded to the entire EU, it could affect \u201cmillions of innocent people whose homes might be searched even when they did nothing wrong,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Civil society mobilizes against Chat Control\u00a0<\/h2>\n

As the decision draws closer, civil rights groups, activists and even European parliamentarians have been speaking out against Chat Control.<\/p>\n

Emmanouil Fragkos, an MEP for the right-wing Greek Solution party,\u00a0submitted<\/a>\u00a0a parliamentary question about Chat Control in July. He said that a review of the law \u201craised new, grave concerns about the respect of fundamental rights in the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The law faces a reading and critical vote at the EU Council. Source: EU Council<\/em><\/p>\n

Oliver Laas, a junior lecturer of philosophy at Tallinn University,\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0in an op-ed on Monday that laws like Chat Control \u201care laying the groundwork in the present for a potential democratic backslide.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn a world that is slowly but surely becoming more authoritarian, individuals are not protected by the state\u2019s surveillance capabilities being reined in by law \u2014 they are protected by the absence of such capabilities altogether,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another point of contention is the impact Chat Control could have on the efficacy of encryption technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fragkos said that creating mandatory gaps in encryption would \u201ccreate security gaps open to exploitation by cybercriminals, rival states and terrorist organisations.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The FZI Research Center for Information Technology, a nonprofit organization for IT research,\u00a0released<\/a>\u00a0a position paper opposing Chat Control last year. It acknowledged that the goal of the law is undisputed, but Chat Control\u2019s implementation would both weaken user rights to privacy and the efficacy of encryption technology itself.<\/p>\n

Sascha Mann, policy shaper for digitalization and digital rights at Volt Europa \u2014 a federalist, pan-European political party in the European Parliament \u2014 also\u00a0questioned<\/a>\u00a0the efficacy of Chat Control.<\/p>\n

\u201cBesides the issues of privacy and consent, chat control may even hinder law enforcement efforts to effectively fight sexual abuse,\u201d he said. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The sheer volume of content sent by messengers in the EU would \u201cresult in an abundance of false positives that would eat up law enforcement resources.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Some 400 scientists from global research institutions\u00a0confirmed<\/a>\u00a0this problem of false positives in an open letter signed this morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cExisting research confirms that state-of-the-art detectors would yield unacceptably high false positive and false negative rates, making them unsuitable for large-scale detection campaigns at the scale of hundreds of millions of users as required by the proposed regulation,\u201d the letter read.<\/p>\n

Mann suggested it would be better for the EU to implement solutions suggested by organizations fighting CSA. These included deleting CSA materials online after an investigation and increasing law enforcement resources.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Europe will see whether these concerns are enough to convince undecided MEPs and chart the future for digital privacy, or lack thereof, in the EU.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 09\/11\/2025 – 08:05<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/technology\/eu-chat-control-hinges-germanys-decision<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EU ‘Chat Control’ Hinges On Germany’s Decision Authored by Aaron Wood via CoinTelegraph.com, As the EU Council heads to vote on the so-called \u201cChat Control\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1571189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1571188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1571189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}