On Wednesday 4 October, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, defended her draft regulation on the removal of child sexual abuse material from the Internet (see EUROPE 12950/5) after the media highlighted possible collusion with companies that use technology to remove such content.
More specifically, the Commissioner responded to a letter sent last week by the Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar (S&D, Spanish), expressing concern about these revelations.
In May 2022, the Commissioner wrote a letter to an American organisation co-founded by actors Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore.
The organisation, Thorn, is developing artificial intelligence tools to detect images of child sexual abuse online, and the proposed regulation aims to combat the dissemination of this type of content on messaging applications using technologies left to the choice of the platforms.
The President of LIBE therefore asked the Commissioner to explain her proximity to companies active in this field.
“You express concerns regarding undue influence and economic interests in relation to the proposal for a Regulation. This proposal is about protecting children from sexual violence. At its core is the need to balance all fundamental rights at stake, including those of children. In preparation of this proposal the normal consultative procedures were followed. Those consultations were broad and objective”, replied the Commissioner.
“In this case, it involves consultations with technology companies or survivors of child sexual abuse”.
The Commissioner also explained that she consulted “a wide range of experts from NGOs focused on privacy rights, NGOs focused on children’s rights, companies, academia and national authorities”.
The Member States are due to discuss the draft regulation next week. The proposal is controversial because of the orders for detecting content in private communications.
Link to Ms Johansson’s letter: https://aeur.eu/f/8w8 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)