European Commission Proposes Law Requiring Tech Companies to Scan for Child Abuse Images

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Photo by Guillaume Périgois on Unsplash

According to a leaked proposal, the European Commission is expected to release a draft law this week that could require digital companies like Meta, Google, and Apple to detect, remove and report illegal images of abuse to law enforcement under the threat of fines.

The Commission said voluntary measures taken by some platforms have so far “proven insufficient” to address the misuse of online services for child sexual abuse. Cybersecurity specialists and digital rights activists are concerned that any effort to break or backdoor the end-to-end encryption protecting images, which would be necessary to scan the images, could break digital security measures altogether.

But, Belgian Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said that “abusers hide behind the end-to-end encryption” when announcing the measure, despite the te…