The European Parliament has extended temporary rules allowing online platforms to voluntarily scan private communications for child sexual abuse material until 2028, after opponents failed to secure the absolute majority needed to defeat the measure.
The vote on 9 July reactivates a regulatory derogation that permits tech companies to monitor messages, photos, and emails for illegal content without violating broader EU privacy laws. While end-to-end encrypted services such as WhatsApp and Signal remain exempt, digital rights, privacy organisations and MEPs are up in arms, arguing that the rules are draconian and amount to mass surveillance. They refer to them as “Chat Control.”
The temporary framework buys time for EU institutions to negotiate a permanent law, a process stalled for months due to political infighting over civil liberties.
Proponents argue the extension is critical to prevent a legal vacuum that would hinder law enforcement.
“This should not be the only tool we have at hand for protecting children, but it is one of the most important tools we have at hand,” said MEP Lena Düpont of the European People’s Party, who pushed for the urgent vote. “We should never let ourselves be divided over the question of how to best protect our children.”
However, in a recent conversation with Euronews, Simeon de Brouwer from the European Digital Rights (EDRi) association argued that “it’s a big breach of our digital rights and goes against basic EU values.”
He said: “It’s a blank cheque to companies, mostly American ones, to look through all our emails and every photo and video we send to each other and then report it to an American centre that then reports it to EU law enforcement”.
Other political groups of the European Parliament such as GUE/NGL, have been advocating for strict, targeted CSAM detection measures, however they too raise concerns about abusing privacy protections.
Talks on the final shape of the law have long been stalled amid political infighting, but negotiations are now on track to resume after the summer.
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