EU member states have agreed to a position regarding online child protection law that does not oblige global tech companies to identify and remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM). According to the report, this is being seen as a big win for American tech companies like Google and Meta. reuters,
This new European Council language contradicts the 2023 position in which the European Parliament would require messaging services, app stores and ISPs to report and remove instances of CSAM content and grooming. There is nothing like this in the proposed law.
Instead, it tasks major tech companies with assessing the risks of their services and taking any preventive measures deemed necessary. This leaves implementation to individual national governments and not the EU governing body.
“Member states will designate national authorities … responsible for assessing these risk assessments and implementing mitigating measures, with the possibility of obliging providers to take mitigating measures,” the European Council wrote in a statement. “In case of non-compliance, providers may be fined.”
There is no language here regarding enforced scanning of encrypted materials for CSAM, which was being discussed as recently as last year. However, there is some language that suggests encryption services should be kept secure. Some opponents, such as the Czech Republic, suggest that the Council’s idea of allowing tech entities to essentially self-police content could actually harm encryption platforms.
“This is a huge disappointment for everyone who cares about privacy,” Czech politician Marketa Gregorova wrote in a statement. “The Danish President has put forward a compromise version of the proposal after lengthy negotiations, which while appearing to be less invasive, actually paves the way for something we have long warned against: widespread scanning of our private conversations.”
However, the proposed legislation establishes something called an EU Center on Child Sexual Exploitation. This organization will have the mandate to help countries comply and provide assistance to victims. The European Parliament also recently called on the EU to set a minimum age for children to access social media, but there is no current legislation on this.
This is not a done deal yet. The Council must now negotiate with Parliament.
<a href