Denmark Reportedly Withdraws 'Chat Control' Proposal Following Controversy

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Record: Denmark's justice minister on Thursday said he will no longer push for an EU law requiring the mandatory scanning of electronic messages, including on end-to-end encrypted platforms. Earlier in its European Council presidency, Denmark had brought back a draft law which would have required the scanning, sparking an intense backlash. Known as Chat Control, the measure was intended to crack down on the trafficking of child sex abuse materials (CSAM). After days of silence, the German government on October 8 announced it would not support the proposal, tanking the Danish effort.

Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told reporters on Thursday that his office will support voluntary CSAM detections. "This will mean that the search warrant will not be part of the EU presidency's new compromise proposal, and that it will continue to be voluntary for the tech giants to search for child sexual abuse material," Hummelgaard said, according to local news reports. The current model allowing for voluntary scanning expires in April, Hummelgaard said. "Right now we are in a situation where we risk completely losing a central tool in the fight against sexual abuse of children," he said. "That's why we have to act no matter what. We owe it to all the children who are subjected to monstrous abuse."

This is horrible.

[HnT]

Very hard to face the reality that the EU is still trying to do this, salami-tactic and boiling the frog for years and years now. This is definitely not over and will keep popping up until they succeed.
Even worse that Denmark, of all places, was pushing for this.
I have no idea what led them to this madness.

Re:

[Schumacher]

Neither do the Danes! But we are a democracy. The next election is required to take place before oktober 31 2026, and I can assure you - by popular opinion - he will not be our next minister of justice.

Re:

[drdaz]

I've been following the Danish surveillance escalation for 25 years (I live there). It's been consistently aggressive across changing governments.

The problem lies with the real, entrenched power in the Ministry of Justice. It makes no difference whatsoever which party you vote for.

Re:This is horrible.

[srmalloy]

The "We think that some of you might be passing around illegal material, so it is imperative that we be given the power to invasively look at everyone's private communications. We're only going to be looking for this one narrow category of illegal material, and we won't look at anything else. Honest. You can trust us not to abuse this." declaration using the justification "we have to protect the children !" is one of the most abusable power grabs ever. Once a government has the power to read all your communications looking for one thing some individuals may be breaking the law by doing, there's nothing preventing them from saying "Well, we're already reading their communications to find this, so we can just look for this other thing, too, as long as we have their communications" and extending their strip-mining of those communications looking for anything else the government might want to prohibit, starting with other illegal activity and becoming more and more invasive until they're looking for anyone saying something that might be considered to be simply critical of the government.

Re:

[JaredOfEuropa]

For every law that has such an impact on our privacy, I think a few questions would need to be answered as part of the bill:
- What is the impact on our rights, and is that proportionate to the expected effects of the bill?
- What is the expected effect of the bill?
- How and when will that be measured?

With the understanding that if the bill does not have the desired effects (all kiddie porn will simply be moved through other channels), the law will be rescinded, not by vote but automatically

Re:

[boa]

> I have no idea what led them to this madness.

Wild guess? Another nation state asked for a favor. Either a EU state or perhaps USA?

Most importantly...

[Alsee]

We MUST be able to inspect and age verify every AI slop porn image to protect the fictional children!

-

Authoritarians never give up

[rsilvergun]

And because billionaires and other members of the elite (and no you're fucking college professor is not a member of the elite) are always authoritarian the authoritarians are extremely powerful and well funded.

They are going to keep trying and more importantly they're going to push your buttons to make you look the other way until they eventually pull it off.

This is why you need to think critically and Google competently. Because they never give up. In America fascism started gaining steam after Barry Goldwater lost his election paid that was 60 years ago. The current regime here is the culmination of 60 years of non-stop work. The people who started it aren't even alive anymore.

It's like, plant a tree whose wood you will use to bludgeoned innocent people to death.

Re:

[ndsurvivor]

MAGAs do think that College Professors are the "elite" *giggles*. They elected one of the most "elite" SOB that ever lived.

Is CSAM profitable?

[RockDoctor]

Case : yes (TechBroDudes implement a meaningless range of "countermeasures", which do not affect profitability.

Case : no (TechBroDudes do nothing that might affect case (1) ; otherwise as case : yes

And the surprise is ... ?

Re:

[ndsurvivor]

I was/am a tech worker who enabled those: "TechBroDudes" to totally abuse the profession. Back in the 80's, and 90's, believe it or not, most people thought of tech as unreliable, and untrustworthy. I actually took an oath to an honor society to make it reliable. I worked hard. I believed tech could transform the world for the good, and make it a much better place. It turns out that it enabled a few Oligarchs to make Kingdoms for themselves.

Re: Is CSAM profitable?

[Big Hairy Gorilla]

You took an oath? That sounds cultish. We are talking about jobs and companies, right?

But also possibly wierd, I thought the same way at first. Automation seemed to take away a lot of drudgery in accounting and human resources. We thought this would be a win for society.

Then my friend's older brother, who was a colonel in the military asks us if we want to do a little consulting to build tank systems. I personally didn't do that, but we did beer and bbq with kids on trikes in the backyard.

TBH, even the guy

Re:

[ndsurvivor]

The electronics industry started out with a lot of unreliable shit believe it or not. An Engineer owes his job to the good Engineers who came before them. An Engineer worth a spit, should be grateful to have his job, and should work hard to ensure the quality that they leave behind is as close as perfect can be so that the next Engineer can climb up the next step.

Re:

[RockDoctor]

And your owners/ managers, honouring no such binding oath, are the ones who dictate which services (profitable, of course) are supported and promoted, and which are denigrated and downgraded.

Now you know how Joe Random Prelate felt, setting the chestnuts out for Joe Random Pope's latest whore-party.

I believed tech could transform the world for the good

Transform the world, maybe. But as it turned out, it just became a tool for humans (sub-species businessmen) to make personal profit.

I'm just astonished that

Re:

[ndsurvivor]

Yes, 1980's. It was a time when mass surveillance was too expensive to be done. Privacy was cherished. Now people whore themselves out to whatever Autocrat that they want to buy stuff from, or express their opinion with. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, as every time period is, and will ever be.

Re:

[RockDoctor]

I remember the first time I used my passport - in 1983 - to discover (because the spook at Immigration didn't close the door behind him) that I'd already accrued several pages of notes accessible (to the right users) via my passport number.

Privacy was cherished.

Maybe by people. Not by "the Authorities". Never by "the Authorities".

Re:

[ndsurvivor]

The America I remember, "the Authorities" were the average middle class person. I am angry almost every day that we gave it away to Oligarchs.

Re:

[RockDoctor]

These trends are not unique to America.

(Oh, and it was 1984, not 1983 when I first used my passport. So long ago.)

wonder who which of the social media

[Growlley]

had the child abuse evidence on whom!

Misread headline

[registrations_suck]

At first glance, I keep reading it as "cunt control proposal".

Maybe it's the same thing?

Re:

[pahles]

No, I think it is more like 'What fills the heart, will flow over from the mouth.'

Re:

[registrations_suck]

I don't see how that could be, short of an injury, as their is no "plumbing" between the two.

The important part is: Voluntary scanning

[twms2h]

"that it will continue to be voluntary for the tech giants to search for child sexual abuse material"

All they want to do is continue allowing the "voluntary scanning" by the "tech giants" (meaning mostly Google and Microsoft) for CSAM. This arrangement expires in spring 2026, so they want to extend it. Once this is done, they will immediately resume their efforts to introduce Chat Control.

Note that "voluntary" here means it's voluntary for the "tech giants" not voluntary for the users of their products.

The "fun" part of this

[ruddk]

The fun part of this is that politicians would be exempt from having their messages scanned. So apparently they did not have enough confidence in its security. :D

Im a glad i am still a EU citizen...

[Voice of satan]

What that article doesn't say is the proposition led to a mailing campaign from citizens who wrote to their Members of the European Parliament to voice their concern.

So this withdrawal is a too rare case of democracy at work. I am glad i did add my small contribution to this by sending some letters.

(And i am also glad i have some place to go should that dictatorship manage to stay in the long run... as it looks like it will)