EU Council Advances Chat Control 2.0 Scanning Proposal

European institutions are preparing a final trilogue on a Chat Control 2.0 regulation that would let police order internet companies to scan private communications in “parts of a service” for illegal content, without having to target a named suspect. A leaked presidency note for the September 29 negotiations sets out three core positions: allow searches across service segments rather than only on specific suspects; treat suspect-limited searches as adding no extra value compared with existing criminal-law tools; and keep the scope broad to cover known illegal photos and videos, newly created material, and solicitation of children. The European Parliament would accept search plans if they are “targeted” and reviewed by judicial or independent authorities, but the Council insists search authorizations can apply to parts of services or individual users, require technical and safeguards details in the plan, and be reviewed in ways that won’t deter providers from conducting their own-initiative detection. As a last resort the Council might drop own-initiative detection and non-public-content orders - only if member states guarantee an equally effective alternative to current voluntary practices. Commissioner for Internal Affairs Magnus Brunner represents the Commission in the talks.

Opponents call the proposal mass surveillance by another name and say it would, in practice, subject every EU user to scanning while running alongside existing systems rather than replacing them. Former MEP Patrick Breyer warns the change would normalize permanent mass surveillance; German experience with the current system shows widespread false positives and harmful impacts - over half of investigations involved minors and consensual sexting, and 75% of flagged chats were not actionable. The Council’s own legal service has previously warned that scanning entire services or parts of them is likely to amount to unlawful, general and indiscriminate surveillance.