Although the majority necessary for the adoption of the regulation relating to child pornography was almost reached, the vote had to be postponed due to fundamental disagreements over access to messaging.
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EU ambassadors, meeting in Brussels on June 20, decided to postpone discussions relating to the formulation of a regulation aimed at protecting minors on the internet, due to lack of agreement between Member States.
It was proposed to use “preflight moderation”, to force messaging services such as WhatsApp and Messenger to include surveillance technology that would scan images of all users.
To learn more about upstream moderation, click here.
The proposal, to be adopted, must be supported by the majority of countries (15 out of 27), representing at least 65% of the total EU population. Some countries, including France, fear that this measure could compromise the integrity of encrypted communications, which should in principle only be accessible to the sender and recipient.
“In the last few hours it has become apparent that the required qualified majority simply will not be achieved,” a source said, adding that the presidency decided to withdraw the point and continue consultations.
It is not yet clear whether the Belgians will continue to seek a general agreement in the coming days, as two more meetings of the relevant ambassadors – Coreper II – are being held on June 24 and 26. “This issue remains a priority for the Council and work will continue to find a position and begin negotiations with the European Parliament. Continuing to protect children from atrocity crimes is a clear commitment from the Council.”
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The EU’s transparency commissioner has acknowledged the need to break encryption under the child pornography regulation.
“The Commission proposed the method or rule that even encrypted messages can be broken, in order to better protect children,” said Věra Jourová, during the European Data Protection Summit held today .
A position that appears to contradict the assertions of Ylva Johansson, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, who proposed the regulation and never mentioned the breakdown of encrypted communications.
“My bill is not about encryption, it’s not even about encryption. The bill has nothing to do with encryption…my bill is technology neutral. It does not “This is not a bill aimed at breaking or weakening encryption,” she said in 2023, during an interview with the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladetshe.
