Breyer Warns of a Double Threat to Private Communications in the EU

Civil liberties activist and former Member of the European Parliament Patrick Breyer is warning of an unprecedented double attack on secure messaging, ahead of critical EU meetings on Friday and Monday. In response, civil society has updated and relaunched the campaign platform fightchatcontrol.eu, which lets citizens immediately email EU lawmakers and government representatives.

The first threat: reviving Chat Control 1.0

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola (EPP) is attempting to resurrect the expired temporary Chat Control 1.0 regulation, which Parliament clearly rejected in its first reading in March and asked the Commission to withdraw. According to a recent leak, the Council is meeting this Friday to try to adopt a first-reading position and force the measure through. Breyer notes that Metsola's own EPP group opposed it in the final vote.

The second threat: Monday's trilogue

On Monday, 29 June, the final trilogue negotiations on the permanent Chat Control 2.0 regulation (2022/0155) are due. The European Parliament is set to rush a new mandate on detection and scanning on Monday morning, after which the trilogue with the Council could produce fatal concessions. In Breyer's account, the worst case on the table includes three elements: “voluntary” mass scanning of private messages returning and effectively becoming mandatory as an enforceable “risk mitigation” measure; mandatory detection orders that are not effectively targeted at criminal suspects and require no prior court order; and mandatory age verification for hosting and communications services, which would end anonymous communication in Europe.

What the campaign asks for

fightchatcontrol.eu was relaunched to target both the member states and the Parliament's lead negotiators. Its email template summarises the legal and technical flaws of the current proposals and demands adherence to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and to the rulings of the EU Court of Justice — points reiterated earlier this month by the Council's own legal service.

“We have repeatedly shown that genuine child protection is possible without destroying the privacy of 450 million Europeans,” Breyer said. He calls for targeted, evidence-based investigations, security by design and the proactive deletion of material on the darknet — not “highly error-prone algorithms that criminalize innocent family photos” — and urges citizens, NGOs and tech companies to make themselves heard this weekend.