Chat Control 2.0: A Dangerous Path Toward Mass Surveillance

The Origins of Chat Control

The march toward Chat Control began in 2020, when the European Commission introduced “temporary” legislation that allowed platforms to volunteer for scanning private messages for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). This first step, labeled “Chat Control 1.0” by critics, loosened EU privacy rules so platforms like Facebook and Gmail could scan unencrypted messages if they chose.

With Chat Control 2.0, things escalated. Commissioner Ylva Johansson of the European Commission introduced the new, far-reaching proposal in May 2022. Investigations uncovered that Johansson and her team worked closely with lobbyists, including those at Thorn (an organization co-founded by Ashton Kutcher that develops CSAM-detection tech). There are direct emails between Johansson and Thorn, confirming the special access and influence that corporate players had on this proposal. This relationship raises legitimate doubts about whose interests Chat Control 2.0 is really serving.

From Voluntary Scanning to Mandated Surveillance

Chat Control 1.0 was limited in scope. Participation by platforms was voluntary and only unencrypted communications were affected. No service was forced to break end-to-end encryption, so core privacy protections remained for most messaging.

Chat Control 2.0 is radically different. Scanning becomes mandatory for every messaging provider. Even platforms that offer end-to-end encryption, like Signal and WhatsApp, must submit to client-side scanning, meaning messages are examined on your device before being encrypted and sent. This system, enabled by artificial intelligence, doesn’t just look for known illegal images but hunts for “grooming” behavior and tries to identify new, previously unseen images. The regulation would cover any communication platform operating in the EU.

By mandating the scanning of all private messages and breaking encryption with client-side scanning, the core promise of confidential, secure communication is obliterated.

What Chat Control 2.0 Really Means

Chat Control 2.0 means that every private message, photo, and video could be scanned before it ever leaves your phone or computer. Artificial intelligence systems would be used to spot not just illegal content but patterns considered suspicious, vastly expanding the scope of what is monitored. Many services would have to introduce strict age verification, spelling the end for anonymous communication over the internet. The law even obliges platforms to set up mechanisms that could be co-opted by criminals or governments if these backdoors were ever compromised. In many cases, content flagged as suspect would be reported to law enforcement automatically, without any human review.

Notably, politicians have written themselves an exemption: government and military communications would be excluded from scanning, which signals that lawmakers know the risks for privacy and security, but are imposing them only on regular citizens.

The European Parliament’s own legal experts found that Chat Control 2.0 would breach Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. It has also drawn condemnation from the UN’s Human Rights Council, which says it would lead to mass surveillance and self-censorship.

Why Germany Said No

Germany opposed Chat Control 2.0 with forceful reasoning. In the twentieth century, East Germany employed the Stasi, the largest and most intrusive state surveillance operation seen in Europe. Over 91,000 staff and 180,000 informants kept tabs on ordinary citizens, reading mail, recording conversations, and destroying any sense of trust or privacy. Hundreds of thousands of East Germans have since examined their own Stasi files to understand the immense scope of the monitoring they endured. The long shadow of the Stasi has left Germany with a unique sensitivity to privacy rights, well over two thirds of Germans oppose government mass surveillance according to polling. When debating Chat Control 2.0, the German Ministry of Justice said that the proposal involved “serious intrusions” and stated firm opposition to breaking encryption.

The Fundamental Problems

Chat Control 2.0 is not just a tradeoff between privacy and security. The proposal’s technical and practical flaws are so significant that it threatens both child safety and cybersecurity for everyone.

Creating legal backdoors in encrypted communication does not ensure only “good actors” have access. History and cryptography make clear that any vulnerability eventually gets exploited by criminals and malicious governments too. Over 500 cryptography experts have warned that Chat Control 2.0 would undermine the privacy and security of every EU resident using digital communications.

The detection systems proposed by Chat Control 2.0 are prone to huge numbers of false positives. Commissioner Johansson herself has admitted that three out of four disclosures are not actionable for law enforcement. The consequences are serious: ordinary people’s private family photos are reviewed by strangers, teenagers are criminalized for consensual sexting, victims of abuse lose safe spaces, and police are swamped chasing algorithmic ghosts rather than real criminals.

Ironically, this approach could actually undermine child safety. Criminals who intend harm will find other, unmonitored platforms or use custom encryption. Meanwhile, the mass scanning will make it harder for real victims to seek help and waste police time on false alarms. There’s nothing to stop future expansion of this infrastructure for purposes beyond CSAM, as other governments have used such powers to investigate political critics, journalists, or activists.

The Right Way Forward

Real child protection requires smart, targeted approaches, not mass surveillance or backdoors in our encrypted apps. Weakening encryption only makes all of society less secure. With backdoors, it is not just police who could potentially access private conversations, but also hackers and hostile governments if (or when) those vulnerabilities are discovered and abused. The result is a less safe internet for everyone, while the real criminals quickly move on to other tools or custom platforms outside the scope of the law. Ordinary people are left with weaker security and an increased risk that these systems will be misused for political or other unintended purposes in the future.

Instead, we need to invest in proper digital education, both for children and adults. Kids and teenagers should learn how to recognize threats, understand online grooming, and know how to respond if something feels wrong. Schools, parents, and support services have a vital role to play. This kind of education prepares children to be safer online without sacrificing privacy for all.

Law enforcement resources should be focused, not scattered. Police should target known criminal networks and close illegal forums, relying on classic investigative techniques instead of scanning everyone’s private messages. Work in partnership with tech companies to improve reporting tools, support victims, and ensure illegal material is removed quickly where it appears.

By supporting prevention, digital literacy, direct help for victims, and strong privacy protections for all, we can actually protect society’s most vulnerable members. Safeguarding children must be a top priority, but sacrificing everyone’s right to private conversation and making the internet less secure for all is not the right way to do it.

Conclusion

Chat Control 2.0 is a fundamental threat to the digital rights and freedoms at the heart of a democratic society. The experience of Germany, haunted by the legacy of the Stasi, should be a warning to all EU countries. Mass surveillance creates far more harm than good, fosters distrust, and ultimately fails in its stated goals.

Protecting children is vital, but not at the cost of weakening cybersecurity, erasing privacy, and setting a precedent for authoritarian abuse. The solution is to reject Chat Control 2.0 and focus on concrete, rights-respecting measures that improve safety for children and everyone else.

The European Council is expected to vote on Chat Control 2.0 within weeks (2025-10-14 to be exact). It is urgent for citizens to make their concerns heard and demand a better, safer path forward for both children and fundamental rights.