Background information
EU police want access to encrypted communication – a detailed look
by Florian Bodoky
Voluntary EU chat control remains. No?
12/3/2026
Translation: machine translated
The EU Parliament has now extended the voluntary chat control until 2027 after all, while at the same time strengthening data protection.
The European Parliament has extended the controversial voluntary chat control. On Wednesday, a clear majority of MEPs in Strasbourg voted in favour of allowing the previous transitional rule to remain in place. The exception will now apply until 3 August 2027. The reason for this vote is a deadline: the previous regulation expires at the beginning of April. Without an extension, messenger services would have had to stop their previous controls.
At the same time, Parliament has tightened the rules. The new version allows less extensive controls than originally planned. Parliament is thus trying to find a compromise between security and data protection. However, MEPs decided to prioritise data protection more than proposed by the EU Commission.
What is the voluntary chat control?
Voluntary chat control allows internet services to automatically check private digital messages. Platforms can, for example, search for depictions of sexual violence against children and report any such findings. They compare images and videos with databases of known depictions of abuse.
Source: Shutterstock
From a legal perspective, this is not unproblematic. In the EU, the ePrivacy Directive protects the confidentiality of digital communication. It stipulates that the content of messages must always remain private. Suppliers are not normally allowed to read or automatically analyse them. The principle is similar to the secrecy of correspondence: digital communication must also be protected from unauthorised access.
The EU therefore introduced a temporary exception in 2021. It allows suppliers to search for known misuse - as long as they comply with certain conditions. The exemption has been repeatedly extended since then. It was intended to buy time until the EU has decided on a permanent regulation that is acceptable to a majority. However, this is likely to be difficult: The EU Commission has wanted to push for chat control for years, but has failed due to the blocking minority. At least four states, whose populations represent 35 per cent of the total EU population, must agree. However, EU heavyweight Germany has so far opposed this on data protection grounds.
How does the new exemption rule differ from the old one?
With the current vote, Parliament has limited the scope of the controls. In future, suppliers are to search primarily for already known abusive material. Such images or videos are stored in databases and can be recognised using digital fingerprints.
Automated checks are also to be used in a more targeted manner. Parliament wants to prevent platforms from searching all of their users' communications across the board. Instead, measures should be limited more to specific indications or reported content.
Another point concerns encrypted communication. End-to-end encrypted chats must not be touched. MEPs also rejected proposals to automatically search for new, previously unknown images of abuse or to detect grooming attempts. Such systems are considered technically unsafe and could capture many messages that do not constitute grounds for surveillance.
What does this mean?
With these amendments, Parliament is deviating from the EU Commission's original plan. The Commission wanted to extend the transitional rule until 2028 without any major changes, but this was rejected. Criticism came from different directions. Liberals and Greens warned against invasions of privacy. Other MEPs considered the restrictions to be too far-reaching and feared disadvantages in terms of law enforcement. Critics of comprehensive chat control see this as a partial success.
With the new deadline of 2027, the parties involved now have more time to negotiate a permanent regulation.
Header image: Shutterstock
I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.
News + Trends
From the latest iPhone to the return of 80s fashion. The editorial team will help you make sense of it all.
Show allThese articles might also interest you
5 comments
later