loading . . . Reality Check: EU Council Chat Control Vote is Not a Retreat, But a Green Light for Indiscriminate Mass Surveillance and the End of Right to Communicate Anonymously Contrary to headlines suggesting the EU has âbacked awayâ from Chat Control, the negotiating mandate endorsed today by EU ambassadors in a close split vote paves the way for a permanent infrastructure of mass surveillance. Patrick Breyer, digital freedom fighter and expert on the file, warns journalists and the public not to be deceived by the label âvoluntary.â
While the Council removed the _obligation_ for scanning, the agreed text creates a toxic legal framework that incentivizes US tech giants to scan private communications indiscriminately, introduces mandatory age checks for all internet users, and threatens to exclude teenagers from digital life.
**âThe headlines are misleading: Chat Control is not dead, it is just being privatized,â** warns Patrick Breyer. **âWhat the Council endorsed today is a Trojan Horse. By cementing âvoluntaryâ mass scanning, they are legitimizing the warrantless, error-prone mass surveillance of millions of Europeans by US corporations, while simultaneously killing online anonymity through the backdoor of age verification.â**
## **The Three Hidden Dangers of the Councilâs âVoluntaryâ Deal**
The Councilâs mandate stands in sharp contrast to the European Parliamentâs position, which demands that surveillance be targeted only at suspects and age checks are to remain voluntary. The Councilâs approach introduces three critical threats that have largely gone unreported:
**1. âVoluntaryâ Means Indiscriminate Mass Scanning (The Chat Control 1.0 Trap)**
The text aims to make the temporary âChat Control 1.0â regulation permanent. This allows providers like Meta or Google to scan **all** private chats, indiscriminately and without a court order.
* **The Reality:** This is not just about finding known illegal images. The mandate allows for the scanning of **private text messages, unknown images, and metadata** using unreliable algorithms and AI.
* **The Failure:** These algorithms are notoriously unreliable. The German Federal Police (BKA) has warned that **50% of all reports** generated under the current voluntary scheme are criminally irrelevant.
* **Breyerâs comment:** _âWe are talking about tens of thousands of completely legal, private chats being leaked to police annually due to faulty algorithms and AI. This is no more reliable than guessing. Calling this âvoluntaryâ does not make the violation of the digital secrecy of correspondence any less severe.â_
**2. The Death of anonymous communications: Age Checks for Everyone**
To comply with the Councilâs requirement to âreliably identify minors,â providers will be forced to verify the age of **every single user**.
* **The Reality:** This means every citizen will effectively have to upload an ID or undergo a face scan to open an email or messenger account.
* **The Consequence:** This creates a de facto ban on anonymous communicationâa vital lifeline for whistleblowers, journalists, political activists, and abuse victims seeking help.
* **Unworkable alternative:** Experts have warned that other methods for âAge assessment cannot be performed in a privacy-preserving way with current technology due to reliance on biometric, behavioural or contextual information⊠In fact, it incentivizes (childrenâs) data collection and exploitation. We conclude that age assessment presents an inherent disproportionate risk of serious privacy violation and discrimination, without guarantees of effectiveness.â
**3. âDigital House Arrestâ for Teenagers**
Under the guise of protection, the Council text proposes barring users under 17 from using apps with chat functionsâincluding WhatsApp, Instagram, and popular online gamesâunless stringent conditions are met.
* **The Reality:** This amounts to a âDigital House Arrest,â isolating youth from their social circles and digital education.
* **Breyerâs comment:** _âProtection by exclusion is pedagogical nonsense. Instead of empowering teenagers, the Council wants to lock them out of the digital world entirely.â_
**A Dangerous Road to 2026**
Todayâs vote was far from unanimous, with the **Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Poland voting against** , and **Italy abstaining** , reflecting deep concerns within the EU about the legality and proportionality of the measure.
Negotiations (âTriloguesâ) between the Council and the European Parliament will soon begin, with the aim of finalizing the text before April 2026.
**âWe must stop pretending that âvoluntaryâ mass surveillance is acceptable in a democracy,â** Breyer concludes. **âWe are facing a future where you need an ID card to send a message, and where foreign black-box AI decides if your private photos are suspicious. This is not a victory for privacy; it is a disaster waiting to happen.â**
**Background Information & Contact**
**About the Vote:** The Council mandate was today endorsed by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER).
**About the Procedure:** The text will now be negotiated with the European Parliament. The Parliamentâs mandate (adopted in Nov 2023) explicitly rules out indiscriminate scanning and demands targeted surveillance based on suspicion.
More information: chatcontrol.eu https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/reality-check-eu-council-chat-control-vote-is-not-a-retreat-but-a-green-light-for-indiscriminate-mass-surveillance-and-the-end-of-right-to-communicate-anonymously/