European Parliament keeps ‘Chat Control’ alive as CHEGA claims win on encrypted messages

The European Parliament has voted to keep the European Union’s controversial “Chat Control” legislation alive, after a motion to reject the proposal failed to secure the majority needed to halt it.

The vote means the current temporary rules allowing online platforms to detect and report child sexual abuse material (by scanning millions of private messages) will remain in force until 2028, while negotiations on the proposed permanent framework—known as “Chat Control 2.0″—are expected to resume in September.

CHEGA has claimed a significant victory in the debate, arguing that amendments tabled by its political group, Patriots for Europe, successfully removed end-to-end encrypted communications from the scope of the parliament’s negotiating position.

According to the party, the change prevents encrypted private messages from being subject to the scanning mechanisms envisaged – and represents an important safeguard for digital privacy.

Despite supporting the amendment, CHEGA voted against the overall proposal and ultimately opposed the parliament’s final position, arguing that this legislation still threatens fundamental rights, including privacy and the confidentiality of communications.

What is ‘Chat Control’?

On the face of it the EU proposal seeks to establish rules requiring digital platforms to detect and report online child sexual abuse material and, in some versions of the legislation, identify attempts at child grooming.

Supporters argue the measures are needed to strengthen child protection online.

But, in practice, to succeed, the proposal prepares the way for mandatory scanning technologies which critics believe create a precedent for large-scale monitoring of private communications, potentially affecting millions of users even when they are not suspected of any crime.

Privacy advocates have argued that criminal investigations should remain targeted, proportionate and subject to judicial authorisation, rather than relying on broad surveillance mechanisms.

Portuguese parties divided

The vote exposed divisions among Portugal’s representatives in the European Parliament.

CHEGA MEPs António Tânger Corrêa and Tiago Moreira de Sá, members of the Patriots for Europe group, backed the motion to reject the legislation. But most MEPs from the Socialist Party (PS) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) voted against rejecting the proposal, allowing the legislative process to continue.

Those voting to keep the proposal alive included PSD MEPs Sebastião Bugalho, Paulo Cunha, Tiago do Nascimento Cabral, Sérgio Humberto, Lídia Pereira and Hélder Sousa Silva, together with PS MEPs Isilda Gomes, Sérgio Gonçalves, Ana Catarina Mendes, André Rodrigues, Carla Tavares and Marta Temido.

With only 314 MEPs voting to reject the proposal—well short of the 361 votes required for an absolute majority—the European Parliament has been able to adopt its negotiating position.

The legislation will now move to the Council of the European Union for the next stage of negotiations, where member states will decide whether to accept Parliament’s position, or reopen talks, before any final law is agreed.

On social network ‘X’, former leader of the country’s Iniciativa Liberal, Rui Rocha, has railed against the lack of coverage this issue is getting in the nation’s press. It is as if the traditional parties in opposition (and the media) have simply decided it is not worth bothering the public with – yet it is precisely the public that stands to have its rights to privacy violated.

Posting a clip in which he can be seen flipping television news channels, looking for a network referring to the subject, Rocha says: “I have a theory why none of this is being talked about in Portugal. Who approved this possibility in the European Parliament? The representatives of the PS (Socialists) and PSD (social democrats). So, it’s always the same. Whenever the centrists prepare to violate your privacy, threaten  your fundamental rights, media outlets pretend not to notice. They publicise things of no interest at all.

“Your privacy is under threat, in the European Parliament. And yet there is no news about it…” he warns.

The battle over permanent Chat Control resumes in Europe in September. Citizens who do not like the sound of it are urged to lobby their MEPs. This far, those against Chat Control are representatives of CHEGA, IL, PCP communists and Bloco de Esquerda. There is only one Socialist MEP against the proposal: Bruno Gonçalves.

Source: Folhanacional.pt/ x.com