EU Parliament rejects chat control again, blocking private message scanning

The European Parliament has once again rejected **chat control**, the law that would open the door to scanning private messages for child sensual abuse material. The standoff continues, as the EU Council keeps pushing to push the text through.

The European Parliament has once again rejected **chat control**, the law that would open the door to scanning private messages. The proposal was put forward by the Commission in **May 2022**, with Ylva Johansson as Home Affairs Commissioner, and the **EU Council** has been trying to push it through ever since.

## What it is and who it affects
The stated goal is to detect **child sensual abuse material**. The mechanism under discussion is **detection orders**: forcing platforms to search for such content in their users' communications, including encrypted services.

Critics do not deny the problem, they deny the remedy. Such a system means reviewing messages that no one has reported.

## The standoff between Parliament and Council
The **Parliament** has stood its ground against the **Council**, which represents national governments and is pushing the text forward. The institutions keep passing the regulation back and forth.

## Encryption and false positives
**End-to-end encryption** protects a medical consultation or an anonymous report. Scanning inside an encrypted chat means breaking that barrier or installing a detector on the device itself.

Among the risks cited are **false positives**: innocent images flagged as incivil. That is the balance no one manages to strike, and it is worth reading the fine print before declaring victory.