The Hungarian EU Council presidency is no different from its predecessors in the dispute over chat control. On Wednesday morning, the current President was forced to remove from the agenda of the Standing Committee the planned vote on the course of Member States around the EU Commission’s hotly contested draft regulation on online surveillance under the banner of the fight against child sexual exploitation. Representatives of EU countries (Corpar). Because it became clear that there would again be no qualified majority in the Committee for a common position for the Council on this matter.
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This time the decider was Netherlands. He said on Tuesday he was unable to vote in favor or abstain from Hungary’s current resolution. This meant that an obstructive minority was once again emerging, as Germany, Sweden and Austria, among others, did not want to support the line drawn.
Continue to worry about encryption
The core of their concerns are: The current Council President has also not been able to address concerns about the protection of fundamental rights such as privacy and security of digital space. Chat control poses a risk of weakening end-to-end encryption.
Hungary had previously suggested limiting controversial disclosure orders to known depictions of abuse. Searching for new relevant images or videos as well as evidence of stalking (grooming) of children via the Internet should be avoided.
Liberals insist: the fight continues
Chat control “has no place in a constitutional state”, Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) insisted ahead of the core meeting on Tuesday. New proposal from the Hungarian Presidency He rejects: “Massive and unprovoked scanning of private communications is a gross and unjustified invasion of privacy.”
EU MP Moritz Körner (FDP) Advised the Commission and member states on WednesdayHe “must finally realize: If you’re riding a dead horse, you should get off”. The Council leadership intends to continue trying to reach an agreement and will continue active discussions with EU countries. But also liberal Bundestag member Maximilian Funke-Kaiser Assured: The fight against this will continue,
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One #chatcontrol It has no place in a constitutional state. I reject the Hungarian Presidency’s new proposal for chat control. Mass and unprovoked scanning of private communications is a gross and unjustified invasion of privacy.
– Marco Buschmann (@MarcoBuschmann) 1 October 2024
many criticisms
At the same time, there continues to be fundamental criticism from civil society, science and associations of the planned surveillance of encrypted messenger services like WhatsApp, Signal or Threema. so Alert Data Protection and IT Security Working Group Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI) and its parent organization the Council of European Informatics Societies erosion of fundamental civil liberties,
Furthermore, “planned corruption of confidential digital infrastructure also poses high risks to trade secrets”. Instead of general surveillance measures, “targeted, legally clearly defined solutions” are needed “that are based on existing laws”. The benefit of chat control would also be questionable, “because the expected flood of content incorrectly classified as illegal will tie up capabilities that are not available for the prosecution of actual crimes.”
(No)
