⚡️🇪🇺 NEW - Amid general indifference, the Council of the EU has just adopted the new version of #ChatControl.

➥ Key points:

Member states have removed the provision that would have required WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and Olvid to automatically scan all messages, including end-to-end encrypted ones, to detect child pornography.

This measure was described as "mass scanning" at the time (notably by the German Minister of Justice).

BUT, the devil is in the details, because the new compromise could amount to the same thing.

Detection will be voluntary (i.e., not mandatory) for messaging services, but they will be required to take "all risk mitigation measures."

For digital freedom advocates, this vague wording would amount to requiring technical means that could include automated message detection.

In other words, no longer mandatory, but a subtle bias encouraging platforms to scan anyway (voluntarily or under regulatory pressure, for example).

And thus the end of encryption that has protected the confidentiality of exchanges until now.

It should be noted that European are still a long way from having a European regulation voted on and transposed into national law.

The Parliament and the European Commission are now taking up the matter.

Only at the end of the trilogue will we have a final version.