“Chat control” has been a hot topic for years. Critics say it is a surveillance law invented by the EU to monitor citizens’ communications. Supporters of the law point out that it is fundamentally about protecting children from abuse by preventing the spread of abuse material.
The fight at the EU level to reach an agreement has led to the temporary rules pending "chat control" now ceasing to apply.
Prosecuting those who commit abuse is one thing, and that is obviously important. But stopping the spread of abuse material is another, says Susanna Pettersson, a child rights lawyer at the children's rights organization ECPAT, and continues:
The police are doing what they can, but the police's job is a drop in the ocean. If tech companies themselves cannot scan their services, they cannot in turn alert children's rights organizations who can alert the respective country's police authorities.
Temporary rules
The temporary rules – an extension of previously existing laws in the area – have served as a free pass for companies such as Meta (Facebook, Instagram) to monitor their messaging services in search of abuse material, something that actually violates EU laws.
Lena Larsson works at the police's national operational department (Noa) with internet-related sexual abuse of children. In a written comment to TT, she says:
"The European Parliament's voting down the extension of the temporary exemption rules regarding the ePrivacy Directive may have consequences for the work of the police, but if and in what way, time will tell."
Evaluation
Larsson further writes that tech companies continue to have an obligation to report crimes on their platforms under the EU law DSA (Digital Services Act). Platforms based in the US also have an obligation under US law to report suspected sexual abuse of children to the children's rights organization NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children), according to Larsson.
"Last year we received 25,077 reports from NCMEC to Sweden," writes Larsson.
According to her, the police will have to do an "evaluation" after some time to see whether the number of cases is now decreasing or increasing due to the end of the temporary rules.
In May 2022, the European Commission presented a proposal to impose stricter requirements on online actors to monitor content and messages, with the express aim of preventing and combating child sexual abuse.
The proposal was put forward by the former Swedish Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson (S). It would, among other things, make it mandatory for platforms to monitor communications, even encrypted ones. The Commission has argued that the actors have not done enough when it has been voluntary and that they are in practice regulated in the US.
The proposal quickly met with criticism that it would open the door to indiscriminate and difficult-to-regulate mass surveillance of private chats. Critics therefore call it “chat control”. The tools are feared to be too unreliable and could single out innocent people.
No final agreement on "chat control" has yet been reached at the EU level.
