‘Orwellian’: EU’s push to mass scan private messages on WhatsApp, Signal

EU member states to vote on controversial Chat Control 2 proposals to scan communications for child sex abuse material.

The European Union is considering controversial proposals to mass scan private communications on encrypted messaging apps for child sex abuse material.

Under the proposed legislation, photos, videos, and URLs sent on popular apps such as WhatsApp and Signal would be scanned by an artificial intelligence-powered algorithm against a government database of known abuse material.

The Council of the EU, one of the bloc’s two legislative bodies, is due to vote on the legislation, popularly known as Chat Control 2.0, on Thursday.

If passed by the council, which represents the governments of the bloc’s 27 member states, the proposals will move forward to the next legislative phase and negotiations on the exact terms of the law.

While EU officials have argued that Chat Control 2.0 will help prevent child sex exploitation, encrypted messaging platforms and privacy advocates have fiercely opposed the proposals, likening them to the mass surveillance of George Orwell’s 1984.