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EU 'Chat Control' Vote Pulled After Germany Rejects Indiscriminate Scanning

The Danish draft lacked a qualified majority, leaving open a possible reworked attempt under a later presidency.

Overview

  • A compromise from the Danish EU Council presidency was removed from the upcoming interior ministers' agenda after failing to win sufficient backing, according to diplomats.
  • German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig said the government will not agree to an anlasslose chat control and rejected mass scanning of messages before they are sent.
  • The plan envisioned client-side scanning on users' devices that would bypass end-to-end encryption, raising concerns about false positives and exploitable security gaps.
  • Major services and NGOs opposed the draft, with Signal warning it could exit Europe and WhatsApp/Meta and Threema arguing the measure would undermine privacy and safety.
  • The Bundestag held a debate as Greens and Left filed motions to explicitly ban client-side scanning, while data-protection authorities and the VPN Trust Initiative urged Berlin to maintain its stance.