A leaked European Union proposal reveals plans to mandate CSAM scanning for child protection in all encrypted messaging services.
EU to Monitor CSAM
In 2021, Apple agreed to halt its plans to introduce the Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) technology after the tech giant faced severe criticism of its dangers to all privacy, according to Apple Insider.
Notably, the UK government backed Apple's plans, albeit after the tech giant had withdrawn them, chiefly as part of its own wish to get backdoors into end-to-end encryption.
Now, it seems that many of the UK's former fellow EU member countries have been planning their own CSAM measures.
These types of plans have been such that the EU intends to impose a single pan-European solution, both to standardize the measures and because it says that the voluntary ones have not been enough.
Alec Muffett, a security consultant, posted a copy of a draft EU proposal about laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse on Twitter.
Well, this is some interesting reading for the afternoon.https://t.co/1z96uE1REx pic.twitter.com/X8Fybvv4fj
— Alec Muffett (@AlecMuffett) May 10, 2022
According to the proposal, despite the important contribution made by certain providers, the voluntary action has proven insufficient to address the misuse of online services for the purposes of child sexual abuse.
The proposal continues that, as a consequence, several Member States have started preparing and adopting national rules to fight against online child sexual abuse, according to iMore.
The proposal also reports that divergent national requirements over CSAM would also lead to an influx in the fragmentation of the Digital Single Market for services.
Therefore, EU regulators propose imposing rules to guarantee the fundamental rights of children and establish a fair balance over the right of privacy for users, according to EuroNews.
The plan is for an EU Center, which would create, maintain, and operate databases of online child sexual abuse indicators that service providers will be required to use.
Using End to End Encryption Technology
No specific services are mentioned in the proposal, but it does state that these measures should be taken regardless of the technologies used by the providers concerned in connection to the provision of their services.
The proposal continues that the provision includes the use of end-to-end encryption technology, which is an important tool to guarantee the security and confidentiality of the communications of users, including those of children.
The proposal also pointed out that when executing the detection order, the providers should also take all of the available measures to ensure that they or their employees can't use the technologies employed by them for purposes other than compliance with the Regulation.
The plan appears to propose the end-to-end encryption be broken by messaging service providers so that they can scan messages for CSAM.
This is the main issue that security experts had against the CSAM system of Apple. They argue that once scanning for CSAM is allowed, the governments would be able to require scanning for any other information they want.
A cryptography teacher at Johns Hopkins University, Matthew Green, has described the leaked plans as "the most terrifying thing that he has ever seen."
Related Article: Apple Employees Voice Out Concerns Over CSAM Detection Tool-Flooding the Company Slack Channel
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Written by Sophie Webster
