The Council of the European Union agreed on a controversial draft regulation, known as CSAM and unofficially as "chat control," which aims to fight the spread of child sexual abuse material.
Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and the Netherlands voted against the initiative. Slovakia and the Czech Republic stated that they are concerned about possible violations of encrypted communication. Italy abstained from the vote.
According to sources, the law is also called "spyware" because it opens the possibility for platforms to read and scan users' messages in messengers like Messenger and WhatsApp. The breakthrough in the previously blocked legislative initiative was made possible by pressure and compromises from the Danish presidency of the Council of the EU.
At the same time, the compromise version states that platforms can choose whether to scan users' messages, and this practice is declared voluntary. Such scanning can be applied regardless of whether the user is suspected of committing offenses.
Despite criticism, the document received the necessary qualified majority. After long negotiations, Germany, which was previously against it, also supported it. Now the Council of the EU will begin negotiations with the European Parliament on the final text of the regulation.
According to the new rules, digital companies will be obliged to prevent the spread of child sexual abuse material. National authorities will be able to oblige platforms to remove content, block access to it, and in the case of search engines, exclude links from search results. The creation of a new EU agency is also planned to help countries and online services implement the rules.
Online service providers will be required to assess the risks of using their services to spread such material or to contact children for the purpose of sexual abuse, and to implement measures to reduce these risks. Companies may face fines for non-compliance.
Representatives of the Czech Republic and Slovakia emphasized that the fight against the spread of child pornography is necessary, but not by breaking encrypted communication. At the same time, representatives of the European Commission stated that it is not about general surveillance of private messages, but only about detecting illegal materials.
According to the European Commission, the number of reports of child sexual abuse material increased from 1 million in 2010 to over 20 million in 2024. Without a new legal mechanism, as stated, effective combating of these crimes will be difficult. The temporary regulation expires in April 2026.
In addition to scanning messages, the regulation provides for mandatory age verification of users on all platforms. This effectively means the end of anonymity on the internet. Combined with mandatory content analysis, this makes End-to-End encryption useless, as messages can be read by authorized persons before encryption.
