The proposed detection regime for child sexual abuse material was rejected by the European Parliament in March, and reviving it could derail
...it could derail talks on a longer-term law. European governments are trying to resuscitate a temporary regime allowing messaging services to scan for child sexual abuse material, but the move risks complicating efforts to adopt a long-term legal framework. EU ambassadors agreed on Friday to move ahead with a temporary extension of the legal framework that allows platforms such as WhatsApp and Messenger to take measures to identify users suspected of sharing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The move, proposed by the Cypriot presidency of the Council of the EU, would be unprecedented, as the European Parliament already voted against extending the temporary regime in March. MEPs warn that if the Council pushes ahead with the temporary instrument despite parliament's clear rejection, it would complicate the ongoing negotiations to develop a an anti-CSAM framework. "As European Parliament we were always in favour of targeted detection," MEP Birgit Sippel (Germany/S&D) told Euronews. "With all the progress made so far on the long-term legal framework, reopening the discussion about a possible prolongation of the interim derogation would hamper those negotiations." The interim measure was designed to derogate from certain EU rules on the privacy of electronic communications until a long-term CSAM regulation was in place. The long-term legislation, dubbed "chat control" by critics, has proved contentious among EU countries and lawmakers because of its implications for privacy, particularly its effect on end-to-end encrypted communications.
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