The European Union has considered scanning users’ private messages in the name of child safety.
This means that the E.U. would forbid platforms that use end-to-end encryption so that governments can get a look-see into whatever messaging they want. There would be no more WhatsApp or Signal as we know it because everything could be scanned by world powers.
Spain has proposed the most draconian measures. In documents leakded to WIRED, Spain’s position was this: “Ideally, in our view, it would be desirable to legislatively prevent EU-based service providers from implementing end-to-end encryption.”
Would this accomplish the goal of ending child abuse? According to WIRED, “cryptographers and other technologists have long argued that this would introduce weaknesses that inherently undermine end-to-end encryption, putting users’ privacy at risk. Furthermore, they have repeatedly concluded that this expanded exposure would ultimately hurt the digital safety and security of vulnerable groups, including children, rather than defend them.”
