EU to Pass New Regulation for Digital Information Scanning

TapTechNews on June 20th, it is reported by TheVerge that the EU is about to pass a new regulation that will mandatorily require service providers to conduct batch scanning of all digital information (TapTechNews note: including encrypted information), and governments of various countries will take a stance on this proposed legislation on Thursday (the 20th) local time.

This legislation aims to detect child sexual abuse materials, and the voting will determine whether it receives sufficient support and thus makes progress in EU legislation.

It is learned that this law was first introduced in 2022 and will implement an upload review system to scan all digital information, including shared pictures, videos and links. Each service that needs to install this review technology must obtain the user's consent before scanning the information. If the user does not consent, the digital information cannot be shared.

This proposed legislation has an ambiguous attitude towards the end-to-end encryption: it simultaneously emphasizes that end-to-end encryption is a necessary means to protect basic rights, but also emphasizes that encrypted messaging services may inadvertently become a safe area for sharing or distributing child sexual abuse materials.

The president of the end-to-end encrypted chat platform Signal, Meredith Whittaker, bluntly said that if this legislation is passed, Signal will stop operating in Europe because it fundamentally undermines encryption.

Patrick Breyer, a German member of the European Parliament, provided The Verge with a statement saying, Indiscriminate searching and the disclosure behavior of error-prone private chats and private photos undermine our basic right to private communication. Children and abuse victims deserve truly effective and court-testable measures, not empty promises.