The regulation is not intended to break the end-to-end encryption of services such as WhatsApp and Signal. Instead, the proposal from member states allows automated scans on the end devices themselves – a procedure experts call “client-side scanning.” In this process, software on the smartphone or computer checks the content of messages, photos, and videos before they are encrypted and sent.
The EU Parliament largely rejects this approach and demands that content yet to be encrypted also remain untouched. In addition, the exception should be limited to known abuse material. Before tech companies forward suspected cases to authorities, a human must verify the report to rule out program errors.
The debate took a new turn in mid-June when EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola pushed for a political agreement on an interim solution at the EU summit. Subsequently, EU states formally spoke out in favor of extending the exception, allowing the Parliament a third vote. AfD MEP Mary Khan called it a democratic scandal, while Green politician Erik Marquardt accused Metsola of massively overstepping her role. MEPs Martin Sonneborn and Sibylle Berg (both from Die Partei) criticized the fast-track procedure in a letter as inadmissible.
In the final vote, 592 MEPs voted on rejecting the extension: 276 spoke in favor of a stop, 286 against, and 30 abstained. In principle, the EU wants to find a long-term solution in the fight against child pornography, but the Council of the EU and the Parliament are still negotiating the text of the law. Only after an agreement between both institutions can the new rules come into force.
Source: Stadt München
