Chat Control: How the EU Decided To Treat Everyone As Criminals

It’s been over three years now since European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson first proposed Chat Control for the European Union. Except, of course, one of the first names this law had was Child Sexual Abuse Regulation, or CSAR for short, which is quite ironic, given that this acronym is also the name of a title historically used by Slavic monarchs.

But while it may have sounded like a dystopian piece of fiction a few years ago, today it’s getting dangerously close to becoming reality. To call this situation scary would be an understatement, because if this law gets successfully passed, digital privacy will be eliminated and every European citizen will be treated as a criminal.

The Horrific Original Chat Control Proposal We Have Already Beaten

Who could possibly object to protecting children from abuse, right? Except there’s one thing – this isn't really about protecting kids at all. It's about building a surveillance infrastructure so powerful and invasive that even the EU's own politicians want to exempt themselves from it. This alone already tells you how messed up it is.

The Chat Control proposal, which has tormented European citizens since May 2022, has already earned the dishonorable title of arguably the most hated EU law of all time. The EU's own legal advisors say it violates fundamental rights, and evidence collected in such a way is unlikely to survive in court, which essentially makes this destruction of privacy not only cruel but also pointless.

Under the original Chat Control proposal, as well as most iterations that followed, every email provider and messaging app, like WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, and your encrypted email, would be forced to scan all your messages before they're even sent. Not just some messages. Not just suspicious ones. Every. Single. One.

The plan was to completely break encryption and use AI to automatically analyze your photos, videos, and texts, looking for anything that might be child sexual abuse material or "grooming behavior." Sounds a little like the Minority Report movie, if it was an absurdist comedy where instead of psychics who are always right at predicting near-future crime, we have AI that gets things wrong 80% of the time.

That’s 4 out of 5 wrongful accusations, which can easily lead to situations like parents getting blamed for child abuse after sending a picture of their kid’s rash to the doctor. The police would still be there to pass the final verdict, but such a mistake can cost an innocent person years of trouble. That, and, of course, the constant monitoring even if you have never been flagged for anything.

The Current Chat Control Proposal We’re Yet To Overcome

Naturally, this sparked some serious resistance all around Europe. Hungary pushed it. Sweden pushed it. Denmark made it a priority during their EU presidency in 2025, presenting an even worse iteration of the law than it already was. But we didn’t give up, and we now have some victories to be proud of.

On November 26, 2025, the EU Council finally presented a much more watered-down version of Chat Control. That’s right, the mandatory scanning requirement is no longer on the table!

However, the fight is still far from over. While the most recent draft of the law in question may no longer require mandatory scanning or force providers to break encryption, the proposition of enabling companies to perform “voluntary” scans as well as doing mandatory age verification checks is still there.

This means all the Big Tech companies would likely continue scanning your messages, while various communication providers would be obliged to verify your age before allowing you to use their services. Sounds familiar? Yeah, that’s kind of like those digital privacy-endangering age verification laws you’ve seen in quite a few places around the world, except on a much wider scale.

But the thing is that even if we get just the age verification, it’s still a serious issue. There's simply no way to verify age without collecting invasive personal data, like government IDs, facial recognition, or behavioral tracking, which leads to creating massive databases waiting to be breached.

An open letter signed by 18 of Europe's leading cybersecurity and privacy academics warned that the latest proposal poses "high risks to society without clear benefits for children." But what’s worse is that it might not only not protect kids but even harm them, as would be the case for LGBTQ+ youth, who often rely on anonymous online spaces to escape abusive families.

And talking about threats to society, experts are already warning how such age verification systems could make it incredibly easy for authoritarian regimes to track down politically undesirable individuals and help deal with them in convenient ways. When you think about it, it really becomes no longer only about privacy but free speech overall. Talk about a regulation called CSAR…

The Chat Control Resistance Needs You

Understandably, the whole of Europe, including child protection and human rights organizations, is fighting against Chat Control and the politicians behind it, who, by the way, would be exempt from this surveillance under “professional secrecy.” And you know what? The resistance is working!

It may sometimes be difficult to believe that signing those petitions and attending those protests has any impact whatsoever, but it really does. It’s exactly what helped flip Germany and Luxembourg to the opposition, which is the main reason why the October 14 Council vote ended up being in our favor.

Yet the situation we’re looking at right now is quite dire. As of November 26, 2025, all but four hero countries (Czech Republic, Italy, Netherlands, and Poland) are standing with the revised Danish Chat Control proposal, which now excludes mandatory message scanning.

The proposal has now moved into “trilogue” negotiations, which is the final stage between the EU Council, Parliament, and Commission before it could become an actual law. The finale is near, and while it’s not the worst-case scenario, it’s far from the best either.

Keeping up the fight is more important now than ever, but we can only achieve something if we all pitch in and stand together. So go to fightcontrol.eu and use their templates to contact your representatives and tell them how you feel. Sign those petitions by stopchatcontrol.eu, as well as those available in your own country. Post about it, share articles, join protests, and make your voice heard!

Even without the mandatory message scanning, it’s no overstatement to call Chat Control Europe’s privacy nightmare. And what’s worse is that having such a law passed would not only obliterate our digital privacy and security but also open doors for much worse things to come.

We are not all some criminals who need to be constantly monitored. We're citizens with fundamental rights to privacy and freedom from unwarranted surveillance. The infrastructure for total surveillance shouldn't exist in a democracy. Because once it’s built, it won't be dismantled. And once that door opens, there's no going back.