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A controversial child sexual abuse material (CSAM)-scanning proposal that’s under discussion by lawmakers in Europe is both the wrong response to tackling a sensitive and multifacted societal problem and a direct threat to democratic values in a free and open society, a seminar organized by the European Data Protection Supervisor heard yesterday.

It was even spotted recently using microtargeted ads to promote the plan, apparently turning to covert targeting to attack critics by suggesting they do not support child protection (despite the existence of another live EU legislative proposal that seeks to restrict the use of political microtargeting… so, er, oops!

Another speaker, Susan Landau, bridge professor in cyber security and Policy at Tufts University, also argued the Commission’s proposal misunderstands a multifaceted and highly sensitive issue — failing to respond to different (and distinct) types of child sexual abuse and exploitation that can occur over the Internet.

Another attendee — WhatsApp’s public policy director, Helen Charles — chipped into the discussion to offer an industry view, saying that while the Meta-owned messaging platform supports EU lawmakers in their aim of tackling child sexual abuse, it shares concerns that the Commission’s approach is not well targeted at this multifaceted problem; and that it risks major unintended consequences for web users of all ages.

Discussing how the proposal might be amended to reduce negative impacts and bolster protections for kids, Breyer said a new approach is needed — one that doesn’t just remove the controversial detection orders but focused on prevention by “strictly limiting the scanning of communications to persons presumably involved in child sexual exploitation”.

The stakes if EU lawmakers fail to reach a sensible revision of the proposal in trilogue negotiations on this file are grave indeed, he also warned — with the possibility that a CSAM-scanning law could mean “the end of truly confidential private messaging and secure encryption” — and also “pave the way to introducing unprecedented authoritarian methods to democracies”.

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