Chat Control

Only **one member state** of the European Union opposes Chat Control. That's according to the account **NXT EU**, which also points to the European Parliament as the only institution that has so far protected Europeans' privacy against message scanning.

## What is the regulation known as Chat Control

Chat Control is the popular name for the European regulation against child sensual abuse, proposed by the **European Commission** in **May 2022**.

The text provides for detection orders: platforms would have to detect and report child sensual abuse material. The flashpoint is scanning on the device itself, client-side scanning. Encryption advocates argue that this technique makes it useless.

## The European Parliament vs. the member states

It is an uncomfortable argument for anyone who expected member states to stop the surveillance individually. In **2023**, the European Parliament adopted a position that ruled out mandatory detection orders; the Council continued negotiating the text.

## Scanning, encryption and privacy

If scanning becomes mandatory, private conversations will no longer be private. The standoff pits child protection against privacy, and neither is a frivolous concern. It's a legal matter and still open: to know what gets approved, you have to trinc the official text.