EU Considers ‘Upload Moderation’ Bill That Forces All Uploaded Images And Videos To Be Scanned By The EU

Known as the “Child Sexual Abuse Regulation” (CSAR), introduced by the Belgian Minister of the Interior, Annelies Verlinden, and endorsed by a number of other member states, Pirate Party MEP and shadow rapporteur Patrick Breyer revealed this leaked information in a post on Breyer’s website.

Breyer summarized the bill’s proposals and ramifications it would create in a post, writing:

Specifically, according to the proposal, users of apps with a communication function would have to agree via terms and conditions or pop-up messages that all images and videos sent to others will be scanned automatically and possibly reported to the EU and the police.

To this end, monitoring backdoors would need to be integrated into previously securely end-to-end encrypted messenger services, even though the Belgians claim that their proposed “upload moderation” scheme differs from the much criticized ‘client-side scanning’.

If a user does not agree to the scanning of their private photos and videos, they would still be able to use the service for sending text messages, but would no longer be able to share images and videos. The scanner algorithms are supposed to report known CSAM as well as unknown images and videos that are deemed potentially suspicious by ‘artificial intelligence’ technology. The scanning of text messages for indications of grooming, which has hardly been used to date, would be removed from the draft legislation, as would the scanning of audio communication, which is not in use at all.

Millions of private chats and private photos of innocent citizens are to be searched using unreliable technology and then leaked without the affected chat users being even remotely connected to child sexual abuse – this would destroy our digital privacy of correspondence. Our nude photos and family photos would end up with strangers in whose hands they do not belong and with whom they are not safe.

Despite lip service being paid to encryption, client-side scanning would undermine previously secure end-to-end encryption in order to turn our smartphones into spies – this would destroy secure encryption.

Furthermore, per some of the latest minutes from the E.U. Commission, Belgium says “if a user refuses to consent, he can continue to use a service but cannot upload pictures and videos.”

Some of these proposals have not yet been stated in writing as of yet, prompting some member states to demand further clarification and to get the law penned down…