EU lawmakers are voting again on Thursday over the so-called “chat control” rules. Critics hate them. Privacy advocates really hate them. The legislation would let tech companies scan private messages — including encrypted ones — for child sexual abuse material.
The legal framework expired back in April. Since then, platforms like WhatsApp have been taking voluntary measures on their own. But the European People’s Party, the biggest group in Parliament, revived the proposal through an urgent procedure. That vote passed Tuesday: 331 in favor, 304 against, 11 abstaining.
It’s tight. Really tight.
Rejecting or amending the proposal now requires an absolute majority — 361 votes. Pirate Party MEP Markéta Gregorová is furious. She called Tuesday’s procedural move “an abuse of power” and said it violates the Parliament’s own rules. Back in March, the same extension was rejected 311-228. Now the EPP is pushing it through a loophole.
Gregorová: “The European People’s Party is abusing its position as the largest political group to bring back, through a procedural loophole, a proposal that Parliament had already rejected. This is unprecedented.”
EU member states already agreed last month to reinstate an interim measure that would let providers detect, report, and remove abusive material until 2028. Thursday’s vote decides whether that framework gets extended while a permanent version is worked out.
The real controversy? Encrypted messaging. Privacy advocates argue scanning end-to-end encrypted chats breaks the fundamental security model. Tech companies say there’s no way to scan encrypted content without weakening encryption for everyone. The EPP says child protection justifies it.
Thursday will tell us which side has the votes.
