This week, one of the EU surveillance projects, chat control, will be voted on. Critics see privacy at risk.
Send content via Messenger? The EU wants more surveillance Photo: image alliance/dpa | Weronika Peneshko
SEDAN taz | It should be a last-minute decision: shortly before the end of the Belgian Presidency of the Council, its representatives at EU level are trying to make a decision on one of the most controversial surveillance projects: communication services such as Whatsapp, Signal or Facebook should, therefore, be obliged, upon order, to scan users' personal images and videos.
Critics have given the surveillance project the title “chat monitoring.” Because that's the core of the project: the content that people send via messaging service should be able to be scanned. According to the EU Commission, which initiated the project, the aim is to track depictions of sexual violence against children and prosecute perpetrators or people who redistribute the content.
The project has so far failed because the necessary majority was not found among the member states. That could change now: Insiders reported in late May that France could give up its veto. This would mean that the previous blocking minority of critical Member States would fall.
If the resolution is adopted in a vote scheduled for Wednesday, it would mean entry into tripartite negotiations with the Commission and the EU Parliament. Given the shift to the right in the European elections, it is unclear whether Parliament will maintain its previous relatively pro-civil rights line.
Scanning despite encryption
The Belgian Presidency of the Council sees its proposal as a compromise: content should not be able to be scanned by default, but only if users agree. The problem: if you refuse, you will no longer be able to send or receive images and videos. Services that encrypt their users' communication end-to-end should be required to allow scanning on the user's device.
“To claim that this is voluntary is simply misleading, when a service can no longer be fully used without chat control,” criticizes Tobias Bacherle, member of the Green Party in the Bundestag and president of the digital commission. Scanning even encrypted image and video content in private chats remains a massive invasion of fundamental digital rights.
Alexandra Koch-Skiba, head of the complaints office at the Internet industry association eco, says: “As a result, we have forced a consent that absolutely contradicts EU law. The proposal affects safety and security “The privacy of all EU citizens remains immense.”
Other experts also reject the plan. Last year, all the experts invited to the Bundestag's Digital Committee concluded that the project had more risks than benefits. Among them were the federal data protection commissioner, representatives of the Chaos Computer Club and the Cologne public prosecutor's office, as well as the vice president of the child protection association.
Instead, experts called for a package of measures: including better prevention, more staff and resources to investigate sexual violence against children, and requiring providers to remove discovered material.