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Chat control in the EU: Criticism hails from all sides

The so-called chat control is not only controversial within the EU population. In the meantime, even the European Parliament’s scientific service and well-known politicians from all sides have criticized the project. This is followed by initial calls to put the planned instruments in the field of digital communication on ice.

Chat control is not expedient

With chat control, the EU Commission wants to take targeted action against the spread of child pornography on the Internet. This has met with widespread criticism since it became known. Now, the EU Parliament’s scientific service has also sounded the alarm, calling the plan not only ineffective. Rather, it says, the crime-fighting tool violates users’ fundamental rights on the Internet. This could not be justified by the low effectiveness in the fight against child pornography. In their 140-page study, the experts make it clear that chat control is likely to increase the number of reported cases of abuse depictions. The problem, however, is that the instrument lacks accuracy. This not only ensures that many blameless citizens are targeted by the investigating authorities. On top of that, the work involved is likely to simply overwhelm the investigators in charge.

This means that the criticism is no longer coming only from EU data protection officers. Now voices are also piling up from the political arena, demanding that the EU Commission withdraw the proposal as quickly as possible. Strictly speaking, the technology is simply not yet fit for purpose. After all, it does not only rely on the detection of already known representations. On top of that, new cases are also to be detected as part of the monitoring process. However, experts believe that the error rate is too high not only when it comes to finding new images, but also when it comes to grooming. Grooming is when adults specifically seek contact with minors in chat portals. Here, chat control simply lacks precision. In addition, the scientific service fears that professional perpetrators could seek a way out into the darknet. Tracking them down there would then be much more time-consuming for the investigating authorities, who are already overstretched.

No blanket data retention allowed

But that’s not all the criticism. On top of that, chat control falls within the scope of so-called blanket data retention. This is prohibited in the EU and would undermine the possibility of encrypted communication. This cannot be justified by the fight against child pornography. However, the experts also find positive words in their evaluation. For example, they welcome the proposal that an EU center be created to deal with the fight against child abuse. Opposite the colleagues of Golem.de the European delegate Patrick Breyer (Piraten) agrees fully with the remarks of the scientific service.

He sees himself confirmed in his initial assessment and says that “the planned suspicionless, area-wide message and chat control […] destroys the digital secrecy of correspondence” and violates the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. On top of that, it would be ineffective in the fight against child pornography, since the investigating authorities would be confronted with a gigantic mass of suspicious activity reports. Thus, the EU Commission is facing massive pressure from many sides. Given these concerns, it is quite likely that chat control will not be enforced in the EU. At least not if no adjustments are made.

Simon Lüthje

I am co-founder of this blog and am very interested in everything that has to do with technology, but I also like to play games. I was born in Hamburg, but now I live in Bad Segeberg.

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The so-called chat control is not only controversial within the EU population. In the meantime, even the European Parliament’s scientific service and well-known politicians from all sides have criticized the project. This is followed by initial calls to put the planned instruments in the field of digital communication on ice. Chat control is not expedient … (Weiterlesen...)

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