> The chat control rollercoaster is entering the next loop: as several countries continue to form a blocking minority, the topic will only be be discussed at the margins of an EU ministers’ meeting on Thursday. There is still no agreement on the text of the regulation, which would lead to dangerous mass surveillance.
—
> The EU member states were once again unable to agree on a joint draft on chat control. Contrary to previous plans, the topic has now also been removed from the agenda of the meeting of justice and home affairs ministers on Thursday. Only a ‘progress report’ is now on the agenda. A spokesperson for the EU Council confirmed this to netzpolitik.org.
> Chat control was already taken off the agenda at last week’s meeting of the Permanent Representatives in the EU Council after the Netherlands announced that it would abstain.
> As a result, there is a tiny blocking minority in the Council against chat control. It is made up of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands, among others. These countries represent more than 35 per cent of all EU residents. If they do not vote in favour of the text of the regulation, it cannot be adopted. Negotiations on the text will therefore continue until further countries agree.
> Elina Eickstädt, spokesperson for the Chaos Computer Club, commented: ‘Hungary seems to be playing for time in order to put pressure on the member states.’ It is now important that the member states that have so far spoken out against chat control stick to their position, Eickstädt continued. ‘We should not forget that Hungary still has until mid-December to adopt a Council position. We must not be deterred by the constant back and forth, but must remain vigilant.’
> The EU member states have not yet been able to agree on a common position. Several Council presidencies have failed to reach an agreement.
> Hungary, which holds the Council Presidency in the second half of 2024, is now trying. It recently proposed that service providers should initially only have to search for known offences – i.e. images and videos that have already attracted attention. Scanning for new material and grooming should only become mandatory at a later date when the technology is good enough.
> The basic problems of chat control remain with the Hungarian proposal: mass surveillance without cause, false suspicions, the end of reliable encryption and problems with IT security.
> **More and more harsh criticism**
> The EU Commission’s plan has therefore been widely criticised – and not just by digital and fundamental rights organisations. Recently, more than 300 scientists from all over the world warned against the regulation – including the Hungarian version.
> The German Informatics Society (GI) has also sharply criticised the regulation: The GI working group on data protection and IT security warns against the Hungarian EU Council Presidency’s new approach. The international umbrella organisation of computer science societies, the Council of European Informatics Societies (CEPIS), has also explicitly endorsed the open letter against the planned regulation.
> Recently, the Research Centre for Information Technology (FZI), a foundation of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs and the University of Karlsruhe, also took a stand against chat control in a position paper (PDF).
> Another declared opponent of chat control is the Dutch intelligence service AIVD: For them, the planned orders for providers of end-to-end encrypted communication [are too great a security risk](https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/dutch-intel-service-csam-update/).
CaptchaSolvingRobot on
Arh, yes, the *tiny minority,* representing only 160,7 million people or 36% of the EUs population.
Really ***tiny minority***, why wouldn’t *everyone* want chat control? Those people *must* be terrorists and pedophiles!
Captainirishy on
This is good news, hopefully it will be blocked.
Isotheis on
Blocked for the nth time, but it only needs to pass once. What can we do for this thing to be dismantled forever?
dat_9600gt_user on
I really don’t want this either, but I can only wish this method won’t be abused by more malicious actors further down the line.
Yonutz33 on
Hopefully it will stay blocked. These stupid politicians don’t get the implications behind it…
plooope on
Here in Finland the grand chamber of the parliament was supposed to decide finland’s position today just few minutes ago but it will be sent back to specialized committees (constitutional, communications, and interior) who will hear expert and after that back to grand chamber to decide.
WhisperingHammer on
It is fucking INSANE that something like chat control that could stop future democratic development is even considered.
8 Comments
> The chat control rollercoaster is entering the next loop: as several countries continue to form a blocking minority, the topic will only be be discussed at the margins of an EU ministers’ meeting on Thursday. There is still no agreement on the text of the regulation, which would lead to dangerous mass surveillance.
—
> The EU member states were once again unable to agree on a joint draft on chat control. Contrary to previous plans, the topic has now also been removed from the agenda of the meeting of justice and home affairs ministers on Thursday. Only a ‘progress report’ is now on the agenda. A spokesperson for the EU Council confirmed this to netzpolitik.org.
> Chat control was already taken off the agenda at last week’s meeting of the Permanent Representatives in the EU Council after the Netherlands announced that it would abstain.
> As a result, there is a tiny blocking minority in the Council against chat control. It is made up of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands, among others. These countries represent more than 35 per cent of all EU residents. If they do not vote in favour of the text of the regulation, it cannot be adopted. Negotiations on the text will therefore continue until further countries agree.
> **No real compromise proposal**
> The [text of the regulation from 24 September (PDF)](https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2024/10/2024-10-01-conseil-hu-csam-proposition-approche-generale-24-septembre.pdf), which was first published by ‘Contexte’, is currently being negotiated. Although Hungary had already amended the text, the basic problems of chat control remain with this proposal: mass surveillance without cause, false suspicions, the end of reliable encryption and problems with IT security.
> Elina Eickstädt, spokesperson for the Chaos Computer Club, commented: ‘Hungary seems to be playing for time in order to put pressure on the member states.’ It is now important that the member states that have so far spoken out against chat control stick to their position, Eickstädt continued. ‘We should not forget that Hungary still has until mid-December to adopt a Council position. We must not be deterred by the constant back and forth, but must remain vigilant.’
> **What is chat control?**
> The EU Commission wants to take action against sexualised violence against children with the so-called CSA Regulation. To this end, it wants to [order internet services](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52022PC0209) to automatically search their users’ content for criminal offences and report them to the authorities in the event of suspicion. The EU Parliament [has been labelling this as mass surveillance](https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/de/press-room/20231110IPR10118/child-sexual-abuse-online-effective-measures-no-mass-surveillance) for almost a year and [is calling](https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2023-0364_EN.html) for only unencrypted content from suspects to be scanned.
> The EU member states have not yet been able to agree on a common position. Several Council presidencies have failed to reach an agreement.
> Hungary, which holds the Council Presidency in the second half of 2024, is now trying. It recently proposed that service providers should initially only have to search for known offences – i.e. images and videos that have already attracted attention. Scanning for new material and grooming should only become mandatory at a later date when the technology is good enough.
> The basic problems of chat control remain with the Hungarian proposal: mass surveillance without cause, false suspicions, the end of reliable encryption and problems with IT security.
> **More and more harsh criticism**
> The EU Commission’s plan has therefore been widely criticised – and not just by digital and fundamental rights organisations. Recently, more than 300 scientists from all over the world warned against the regulation – including the Hungarian version.
> The German Informatics Society (GI) has also sharply criticised the regulation: The GI working group on data protection and IT security warns against the Hungarian EU Council Presidency’s new approach. The international umbrella organisation of computer science societies, the Council of European Informatics Societies (CEPIS), has also explicitly endorsed the open letter against the planned regulation.
> Recently, the Research Centre for Information Technology (FZI), a foundation of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs and the University of Karlsruhe, also took a stand against chat control in a position paper (PDF).
> Another declared opponent of chat control is the Dutch intelligence service AIVD: For them, the planned orders for providers of end-to-end encrypted communication [are too great a security risk](https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/dutch-intel-service-csam-update/).
Arh, yes, the *tiny minority,* representing only 160,7 million people or 36% of the EUs population.
Really ***tiny minority***, why wouldn’t *everyone* want chat control? Those people *must* be terrorists and pedophiles!
This is good news, hopefully it will be blocked.
Blocked for the nth time, but it only needs to pass once. What can we do for this thing to be dismantled forever?
I really don’t want this either, but I can only wish this method won’t be abused by more malicious actors further down the line.
Hopefully it will stay blocked. These stupid politicians don’t get the implications behind it…
Here in Finland the grand chamber of the parliament was supposed to decide finland’s position today just few minutes ago but it will be sent back to specialized committees (constitutional, communications, and interior) who will hear expert and after that back to grand chamber to decide.
It is fucking INSANE that something like chat control that could stop future democratic development is even considered.