Contrary to headlines suggesting the EU has “backed away” from Chat Control, the negotiating mandate endorsed today by EU ambassadors in a close split vote paves the way for a permanent infrastructure of mass surveillance. Patrick Breyer, digital freedom fighter and expert on the file, warns journalists and the public not to be deceived by the label “voluntary.”

While the Council removed the obligation for scanning, the agreed text creates a toxic legal framework that incentivizes US tech giants to scan private communications indiscriminately, introduces mandatory age checks for all internet users, and threatens to exclude teenagers from digital life.

“The headlines are misleading: Chat Control is not dead, it is just being privatized,” warns Patrick Breyer. “What the Council endorsed today is a Trojan Horse. By cementing ‘voluntary’ mass scanning, they are legitimizing the warrantless, error-prone mass surveillance of millions of Europeans by US corporations, while simultaneously killing online anonymity through the backdoor of age verification.”

The Three Hidden Dangers of the Council’s “Voluntary” Deal

The Council’s mandate stands in sharp contrast to the European Parliament’s position, which demands that surveillance be targeted only at suspects and age checks are to remain voluntary. The Council’s approach introduces three critical threats that have largely gone unreported:

1. “Voluntary” Means Indiscriminate Mass Scanning (The Chat Control 1.0 Trap)
The text aims to make the temporary “Chat Control 1.0” regulation permanent. This allows providers like Meta or Google to scan all private chats, indiscriminately and without a court order.

• The Reality: This is not just about finding known illegal images. The mandate allows for the scanning of private text messages, unknown images, and metadata using unreliable algorithms and AI.
• The Failure: These algorithms are notoriously unreliable. The German Federal Police (BKA) has warned that 50% of all reports generated under the current voluntary scheme are criminally irrelevant.
• Breyer’s comment: “We are talking about tens of thousands of completely legal, private chats being leaked to police annually due to faulty algorithms and AI. This is no more reliable than guessing. Calling this ‘voluntary’ does not make the violation of the digital secrecy of correspondence any less severe.”

2. The Death of anonymous communications: Age Checks for Everyone
To comply with the Council’s requirement to “reliably identify minors,” providers will be forced to verify the age of every single user.

• The Reality: This means every citizen will effectively have to upload an ID or undergo a face scan to open an email or messenger account.
• The Consequence: This creates a de facto ban on anonymous communication—a vital lifeline for whistleblowers, journalists, political activists, and abuse victims seeking help.
• Unworkable alternative: Experts have warned that other methods for “Age assessment cannot be performed in a privacy-preserving way with current technology due to reliance on biometric, behavioural or contextual information… In fact, it incentivizes (children’s) data collection and exploitation. We conclude that age assessment presents an inherent disproportionate risk of serious privacy violation and discrimination, without guarantees of effectiveness.”

3. “Digital House Arrest” for Teenagers
Under the guise of protection, the Council text proposes barring users under 17 from using apps with chat functions—including WhatsApp, Instagram, and popular online games—unless stringent conditions are met.

• The Reality: This amounts to a “Digital House Arrest,” isolating youth from their social circles and digital education.
• Breyer’s comment: “Protection by exclusion is pedagogical nonsense. Instead of empowering teenagers, the Council wants to lock them out of the digital world entirely.”

A Dangerous Road to 2026

Today’s vote was far from unanimous, with the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Poland voting against, and Italy abstaining, reflecting deep concerns within the EU about the legality and proportionality of the measure.

Negotiations (“Trilogues”) between the Council and the European Parliament will soon begin, with the aim of finalizing the text before April 2026.

“We must stop pretending that ‘voluntary’ mass surveillance is acceptable in a democracy,” Breyer concludes. “We are facing a future where you need an ID card to send a message, and where foreign black-box AI decides if your private photos are suspicious. This is not a victory for privacy; it is a disaster waiting to happen.”

Background Information & Contact

About the Vote: The Council mandate was today endorsed by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER).
About the Procedure: The text will now be negotiated with the European Parliament. The Parliament’s mandate (adopted in Nov 2023) explicitly rules out indiscriminate scanning and demands targeted surveillance based on suspicion.

More information: chatcontrol.eu

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