Key facts
- The European Parliament voted to send a child abuse scanning bill back to EU member governments.
- The bill includes amendments to protect end-to-end encrypted services.
- Temporary rules allowing online platforms to scan for child sexual abuse material were backed.
- Member states have three months to decide whether to accept the Parliament's proposed changes.
- Tech companies currently lack a legal basis to voluntarily scan for child sexual abuse material online.
The European Parliament has voted to send a controversial bill aimed at scanning for child abuse material back to EU member governments. The decision followed a chaotic vote where lawmakers debated changes designed to ensure that scanning would not be applied to end-to-end encrypted services, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal.
Lawmakers backed a proposal to reinstate temporary rules that allow online platforms like Google and Meta to detect and remove online child sexual abuse materials. These temporary rules, which were in place from 2021 to April, exempted online platforms from strict online privacy rules and aimed to give EU countries and lawmakers time to agree on a permanent solution.
Lawmaker Marketa Gregorova expressed concern about voluntary mass scanning passing, but was glad that an amendment preserving encryption secured an absolute majority. The issue pits advocates of online safety measures against privacy activists worried about surveillance.
EU countries have three months to decide whether to back the European Parliament's changes. If they do not agree and propose a different version, the legislation would enter a 'conciliation' procedure, a negotiation process between the Parliament and the Council. The European Commission had proposed a draft rule on child sexual abuse material in 2022, but progress has been slow. Big Tech has lobbied against any requirement for messaging services to report and remove known and new images and videos of child abuse.