Top-level pressure and obscure procedures breathe new life into a controversial proposal to allow scanning for online child sexual abuse material.
Sam Clark
In the latest headache for legislators, lawmakers on Thursday added an amendment to the controversial piece of legislation that would exempt end-to-end encrypted services like WhatsApp and Signal from the scanning rules.
In the end, both camps came out disappointed.
German lawmaker Lena Düpont, the center-right group’s home affairs spokesperson, said the group wanted a “clear cut” return of the law with no amendments. “We’re not satisfied with the results of today,” she said.
Irena Joveva, a Slovenian liberal lawmaker who voted against the scanning regime as a whole and was behind one of the successful amendments, said “I remain deeply disappointed that the Council, with the backing of one political group, managed to force this vote upon us.”
Tech firms, which are continuing to scan despite the legal gap, face more uncertainty and delays, they said. “We hoped for approval today,” said Ben Brake, director general of tech lobby group DOT Europe. “Adopting amendments — even if they’re well-intentioned — is delaying the process.”
And children remain unprotected, argued Nathalie Meurens, spokesperson for ECLAG, a coalition of child rights groups. “Today’s vote was about closing a critical legal gap that continues to put children at risk,” she said.
