The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties will not be voting on the report on the removal of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from the internet on 26 October, and is now considering 13 November, Parliament said on 23 October.
No political agreement has yet been reached on this text, led by Spain’s Javier Zarzalejos (EPP), and negotiations are still underway, notably on the proportionality and targeting of measures to detect such content.
A meeting of the shadow rapporteurs is scheduled for 24 October.
The CSAM Regulation is highly controversial precisely because of the detection orders imposed on platforms to identify paedophile material in private communications. The EU Council has not yet been able to adopt a position (see EUROPE 13275/2).
On Monday 23 October, at a seminar on the subject organised by the European Data Protection Supervisor, Wojciech Wiewiórowski expressed his fears that this Regulation would go well beyond its objectives of simply protecting children and would constitute “a radical turning point” in terms of privacy, with a possible “point of no return”. The extremely sensitive and complex nature of the subject calls for the utmost caution and respect for both evidence and personal data, he summarised.
Speaking in turn, S&D and Greens/EFA MEPs Birgit Sippel (German), Saskia Bricmont (Belgian) and Patrick Beyer (German) also voiced their reservations, with German S&D MEP Mrs Sippel calling for the best possible balance to be struck between combating “horrific crimes” and protecting privacy; otherwise, she said, the Regulation could call into question “the fundamental foundations of our societies”.
Belgian MEP Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA) highlighted the new powers given to Europol by this Regulation, which could give it greater access to police data. She welcomed the fact that Parliament was not currently moving in this direction.
For Patrick Breyer (Greens/EFA, German), this draft Regulation would be “unprecedented in the free world” and divides Parliament’s political groups.
At the seminar, the MEP also took the view that the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council’s latest proposals, which would limit detection orders to only known material, were not sufficient to prevent the risk of a precedent being set for the mass surveillance of private communications. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)