{"id":3471,"date":"2026-07-09T14:26:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T14:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=3471"},"modified":"2026-07-09T14:26:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T14:26:03","slug":"a-majority-of-european-lawmakers-voted-against-letting-big-tech-read-our-messages-theyre-going-to-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=3471","title":{"rendered":"A Majority of European Lawmakers Voted Against Letting Big Tech Read Our Messages. They\u2019re Going to Anyway."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span class=\"lead-in-text-callout\">The European Parliament<\/span> has voted to extend legislation allowing tech companies to voluntarily scan users&#8217; private messages for child sexual abuse material, despite a majority of lawmakers voting against the proposal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The ruling reinstates permissions for firms including Meta, Google, and Microsoft to scan private text, email, and social media messages through a bill nicknamed \u201cChat Control\u201d by critics. End-to-end encrypted chats, such as those on WhatsApp and Signal, remain exempt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cIt will mean that private companies may deny your right to have confidential digital conversations,\u201d Simeon de Brouwer, policy advisor at Brussels-based advocacy group European Digital Rights tells WIRED, \u201cthey could, if they want to, read every message you write, every email you send, every picture you share.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The European People&#8217;s Party, the largest political group in European Parliament, has been battling to bring back tech firms\u2019 legal basis to scan messages since a prior law expired in April. Members say firms\u2019 voluntary detection activities have helped identify and rescue victims of online child sexual abuse, and disallowing them leaves children unprotected. They have been rushing to reinstate the legislation before parliament disperses for its summer break at the end of the month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cWe cannot go to the summer recess knowing that our children are not protected,\u201d party vice-chair Tomas Tob\u00e9 told lawmakers earlier in the week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">But the implications for privacy means the legislation has faced fierce opposition from other parties and civil rights activists. The EPP resorted to a procedural manoeuvre to force fresh votes on this legislation this week after talks collapsed in March. This \u201curgent procedure\u201d skips preliminary committee debates where amendments would often be introduced and stipulates that the regulation passes unless an absolute majority of 361 MEPs vote against it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">While more Members of the European Parliament voted against the regulation on Thursday than voted for it, they fell short of that majority by 47 votes. Tech companies will now retain that right to scan messages for child sexual abuse detection until 2028, or until permanent legislation \u2013 in discussion and already dubbed \u201cChat Control\u201d by critics \u2013 replaces it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Civil rights activist and former MEP Patrick Breyer called the ruling a \u201cfarce\u201d which \u201cdamages democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cOur children are the real losers in this undemocratic process,\u201d according to a <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.patrick-breyer.de\/en\/eu-parliament-greenlights-chat-control-1-0-breyer-our-children-lose-out\/\" class=\"external-link text link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.patrick-breyer.de\/en\/eu-parliament-greenlights-chat-control-1-0-breyer-our-children-lose-out\/&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patrick-breyer.de\/en\/eu-parliament-greenlights-chat-control-1-0-breyer-our-children-lose-out\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">blog post<\/a> by Breyer. \u201cTrying to protect children with suspicionless mass surveillance is like frantically mopping the floor while the faucet is still running. Blanket chat control is just as unacceptable as indiscriminately opening everyone\u2019s physical mail.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/a-majority-of-european-lawmakers-voted-against-letting-big-tech-read-our-messages-theyre-going-to-anyway\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European Parliament has voted to extend legislation allowing tech companies to voluntarily scan users&#8217; private messages for child sexual abuse material, despite a majority of lawmakers voting against the proposal. The ruling reinstates permissions for firms including Meta, Google, and Microsoft to scan private text, email, and social media messages through a bill nicknamed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[202,180,75,177,179,930],"class_list":["post-3471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-europe","tag-laws","tag-politics","tag-privacy","tag-regulation","tag-tech-policy-and-law"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Majority of European Lawmakers Voted Against Letting Big Tech Read Our Messages. 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