The European Union wants to force tech companies to scan your private messages & images, even in your favorite encrypted apps.
The 🇪🇺 European Union is advancing legislation that could fundamentally change how we communicate online. ChatControl would require all messaging platforms to automatically scan their users’ private messages and images.
Yes, even encrypted ones like Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram. No, you can’t opt out.
This isn’t just another privacy policy update you can ignore. If passed, this EU regulation (strongest and most binding legal instrument in EU law) would automatically apply to all member states without any wiggle room for national interpretation. It would even override constitutional protections for communication privacy and establish unprecedented mass surveillance of private communications.
The official justification? Fighting child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Protecting children is undeniably crucial, but the proposed methods would eliminate digital privacy for 450 million Europeans and set a global precedent for mass surveillance.
This surveillance trend extends beyond Europe: 🇨🇭 Switzerland is advancing metadata retention requirements, the 🇬🇧 UK is implementing comprehensive age verification systems and now the 🇪🇺 EU proposes to scan every private message. Each initiative is positioned as child protection policy, but the implications reach far beyond their stated goals.
What is ChatControl #
ChatControl is what critics call the EU’s proposed Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse, also known as CSAR (Child Sexual Abuse Regulation).
The proposal builds on surveillance techniques already deployed by major tech companies. Meta analyzes all Facebook Messenger conversations and unencrypted WhatsApp data (profile photos, group descriptions). Apple announced similar scanning for iCloud content in 2021, though they later suspended the program.
This turns voluntary corporate surveillance into mandatory government-ordered scanning. A temporary 2021 EU regulation allowed platforms to scan content voluntarily for three years. That authorization expired in 2024, which is why CSAR was proposed. The temporary regulation merely permitted scanning; CSAR would make detection obligatory under certain conditions.
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