Coded messaging services were quick to condemn the Commission’s proposal. Julia Weiss, a spokesperson for Swiss messenger app Threema, says the company was in no way willing to compromise the privacy of its users. “Building a surveillance system to proactively scan all private content was a terrible idea when Apple proposed it, and it’s a terrible idea now,” added Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, in a Twitter post. In August 2021, Apple announced a proposal to scan its users’ photos for child sexual abuse material, but after heavy criticism, those plans were postponed indefinitely a month later.
But Ylva Johansson, Europe’s internal affairs commissioner, has been haunted in her pursuit of this law. “I am willing to hear criticism from companies that detecting child abuse material and protecting children may not be profitable, but it is necessary,” she said at a news conference on Wednesday. Tools used to perform scans should be the least privacy-intrusive technology and should be chosen in consultation with data protection authorities, she added.
Johansson’s proposal does not define what type of technology these companies should use to scan messages. According to the commissioner, the reason for this is that the legislation will not become obsolete if new privacy-friendly solutions are invented. Her supporters say the law will also incentivize companies to spend more resources creating the tools they need to use later. “I am increasingly confident that if the environment is correct and if there is a normative legal framework that will protect children and adolescents, then businesses and solutions can be created and generated that can eliminate this crisis,” said Paul Zeitz, executive coordinator of Brave Movement, a group representing survivors of childhood sexual violence.
But privacy groups say this approach involves legislating based on impossible technology. “It doesn’t matter how many times Commissioner Johansson says in public that you can scan encrypted messages securely and with full respect for privacy,” said Jakubowska. “That still doesn’t make it true.”
The regulation has yet to be signed by the European Parliament and EU member states, which could take years. But critics, including Germany’s Federal Data Protection Commissioner Ulrich Kelber, have committed to stop the current proposal. “As some points will lead to solutions that seriously affect fundamental rights, under no circumstances should the regulation remain in this form,” he said on Thursday.
Yet Johansson remains imperturbable. In an interview with WIRED, she describes the fight against child sexual abuse as a matter that feels very personal. “As a mother, I feel obligated to protect my children,” she says. “As an adult, I have a duty to protect all children. And as a politician, if I have the power to propose legislation to protect children, I think I am morally obligated to propose that legislation.”
Other MEPs have accused Johansson of bringing an emotional intensity to the debate, making it difficult to criticize details in the law without feeling that they don’t care about children who are victims of child abuse.
However, the commissioner can claim supporters among survivors of child sexual abuse, who she says are impressed by her strong rhetoric and clear language on subjects that still feel taboo.
“It feels really good when you’re a survivor to have a political leader, who is very powerful, talk about shame, talk about trauma, talk about the impact of child sexual abuse,” said Mié Kohiyama, a French survivor of child sexual abuse. assault that is also part of Brave Movement, which was founded earlier this year. “It’s so important to us.”
