The European Council, responsible for setting the political direction of the European Union, has proposed a new measure that would mandate the scanning of photos and videos sent through private messenger services like Signal to detect child abuse material. 

The Council acknowledged the importance of end-to-end encryption, describing it as “a necessary means of protecting fundamental rights.” Nevertheless, it expressed concerns that these encrypted services should not become “secure zones where child sexual abuse material can be shared or disseminated without possible consequences.”

The proposal stated that “child sexual abuse material should remain detectable in all interpersonal communications services through the application of vetted technologies, when uploaded, under the condition that the users give their explicit consent under the provider’s terms and conditions for a specific functionality being applied to such detection in the respective service.”

While users give their consent to this function being applied, refusing this policy would result in a user being unable to send images, videos or URLs at all. This stipulation essentially makes the scanning of photos and videos sent privately mandatory.

Signal, a popular encrypted messenger app, has criticized the proposal. Meredith Whittaker, Signal’s president, argued that such measures could not be implemented within the context of end-to-end encrypted communications without compromising encryption itself. 

“There is no way to implement such proposals in the context of end-to-end encrypted communications without fundamentally undermining encryption and creating a dangerous vulnerability in core infrastructure that would have global implications well beyond Europe,” Whittaker wrote in a statement.

“Mandating mass scanning of private communications fundamentally undermines encryption. Full stop,” she added.

The European Council may reach a final negotiating position on the regulation this week, according to a report by The Record.