The Presidency briefing on the results of the trilogue on the ePrivacy regulation, originally scheduled for Wednesday 5 May, is expected to take place on 12 or 20 May, a diplomatic source told EUROPE.
This provision, on which the European Parliament and the Council reached an agreement on 29 April (see EUROPE 12710/3), requires technology companies - particularly Internet calling, messaging or email services - to detect, report and remove online child sexual abuse.
Several aspects have long strained the inter-institutional discussions, starting with the fear that private conversations or intimate photos could be mistakenly flagged by the algorithm and wrongly disclosed to the relevant companies and authorities. The last version of the compromise had taken this into account by ensuring that a complaints mechanism would be put in place to ensure that erroneously deleted content could be restored as soon as possible.
This regulation, which is intended to be a temporary measure derogating from certain aspects of the ePrivacy Directive, should apply for three years, or until an earlier date, if the permanent legal instrument is adopted by the legislators and repeals these temporary rules before that date.
The European Commission tabled its draft legislation in September 2020 to allow technology companies, on a non-binding basis, to monitor interpersonal communications in order to identify and report material related to child sexual abuse on the internet (see EUROPE 12557/13). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)