Chat Control is one of the most dangerous laws to be passed in the history of the EU.
It removes every citizen right to privacy, ends investigative journalism as we know it, puts childs safety at risk and endangers national security by breaking encryption. – Kolja Weber – CEO of FlokiNET
The European Union is moving ahead with the Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), also known as Chat Control. While protecting children is a legitimate goal, the proposed law would put every EU citizen under surveillance and it extends to all users whose data passes through servers located within the EU’s jurisdiction by scanning all private messages and media, even on encrypted platforms.
We firmly oppose this legislation, as do many other privacy focused organizations across Europe.
Mass surveillance, everyone under suspicion
- With exception of government officials and politicians, that remain private and unscanned. All citizens are presumed guilty of possibly having committed a crime without cause.
- Text and photo filters monitor all messages without exception.
- Apply even to end-to-end encrypted services (WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, etc.), which would need to build in backdoors or client-side scanning tools. https://signal.org/blog/pdfs/germany-chat-control.pdf
- Your content is scanned and flagged automatically, using AI or algorithms that are clearly susceptible to errors, which inevitably leads to false accusations and over-reporting.
- Such monitoring would not require judicial authorization, a fundamental break from the analog world, where the privacy of correspondence and confidentiality of communications are legally protected.
- The normalization of widespread scanning of private, despite legal precedents protecting the privacy of communication across the EU.
- If adopted, it could take years to successfully challenge it legally, but by then, the damage to privacy and trust would already be done.
Why does this concern you?
Leading privacy advocates, scientists, and digital rights groups warn of several dangers:
- Chat Control conflicts with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, especially regarding privacy, freedom of expression, and protection of personal data.
- Weakening encryption to enable scanning creates vulnerabilities, not only for your chat but proposal leaves space for breaking all protection to any data, criminals and authoritarian states will definitely take advantage and exploit.
- If you feel constantly watched, would you participate in democracy in the same way? The self-censoring effect is real and does undermine free speech and democracy.
- Criminals will simply move to hidden tools or private networks under different jurisdictions, while ordinary people’s communications are swept up in mass surveillance.
- Journalism is the antidote to tyranny. By breaking encryption, the organizations that fight for our democracy and rights will lose their tools for secure communication and can also be an easier target.
- Europol plans to build a massive database containing both actual Child Sexual Abuse photos and videos and millions of innocent images that could be used to train increasingly invasive AI systems, potentially expanding to monitor for other “crimes” beyond child abuse.
Why does this matter for FlokiNET and our users?
As a hosting and communications provider committed to privacy, we are completely against breaking encryption and security, among other parts of this proposal. We are at risk of seeing the EU become a global surveillance pioneer.
We do operate 3x locations within the EU jurisdiction, selected carefully to protect our users’ privacy and freedom of speech. Iceland remains the one location outside of the EU that has a strong law framework protecting privacy.
As a web hosting company, we could be forced to compromise on your privacy and security, required by law under the jurisdiction of the EU to scan all content hosted on our servers and share with Europol. This includes, but is not limited to: e-mails, storage volumes, logs, anything that is flagged or even false-positive is shared without any suspicion.
Iceland remains our strong location outside of the EU where legal framework remains strong with right to privacy and freedom of the press, of speech, and expression.
Yes, you can do something about it
- Use the links below to contact your EU representatives and express your concerns. This remains the most effective way to stop this proposal from being approved.
- Spread the word: Share articles, explain to friends and family what this law really means. You can read the EU proposal here and EDRi’s detailed article on its impact here
- Support digital rights groups working tirelessly to protect secure communications. You can also sign the petition of the Stop Scanning Me campaign created by EDRi
The protection of children should never come at the cost of dismantling the privacy, security, and freedom of speech.
Civil society response to Chat Control
According to Tuta’s detailed analysis the latest EU drafts even allow scanning of unknown content, not just known illegal material, meaning predictive AI would decide what looks “suspicious.”
Tuta also coordinated an open letter against Chat Control – signed by privacy focused providers, and NGOs. FlokiNET proudly joined this letter.
StopChatControl.fr warns that mandatory scanning will destroy end-to-end encryption and harm journalists, activists, and survivors who rely on private communication for safety.
EDRi has compiled a comprehensive collection of 69 statements from EU politicians, member states, technology companies, and child protection experts. These statements explain why the Chat Control proposal should not move forward. Their analysis makes one thing clear: The proposal would not only fail to achieve its stated goals, but would also endanger the very rights and freedoms the EU is meant to protect.
The data doesn’t just disappear
The proposed system goes far beyond simple scanning. According to a Balkan Insight investigation the EU plans to store flagged images and use them to train artificial intelligence models designed to detect “suspicious content.” This means that private material will not only be reviewed and deleted, but also retained, analyzed, and repurposed to improve automated detection systems. Once uploaded, personal content could become part of a permanent AI dataset beyond an individual’s control.
Further reporting by Balkan Insight shows that Europol has explicitly requested unlimited access to Chat Control data, arguing that “all data is useful and should be passed on to law enforcement, there should be no filtering by the [EU] Centre because even an innocent image might contain information that could at some point be useful to law enforcement.”
In practice, this would turn private communications into a permanent data pool for governments and AI systems. Not just scanned once, but collected, stored, and continuously mined.
As Balkan Insight further revealed, the push for large-scale message scanning has been strongly supported by private technology vendors, lobby groups, and law-enforcement agencies that stand to profit from supplying detection tools and managing the resulting data.
The investigation: also highlights close coordination between the European Commission, Europol, and companies developing scanning software, raising serious questions about whose interests this legislation truly serves.
Chat Control sets a dangerous precedent by giving authorities the power to block anything they don’t want you to see. Meanwhile, politicians are completely exempt; their communications remain private and unscanned. – Kolja Weber – CEO of FlokiNET
Commercial interests
Chat Control didn’t emerge from genuine democratic debate, but as result of intensive lobbying by commercial interests. Investigative reporting revealed that organizations like Thorn, which develops CSAM detection software, spent over $630,000 lobbying EU officials.
Companies stand to profit massively, their technology would become mandatory across all EU platforms, including the Oak Foundation (with $24 million lobbying for Chat Control since 2019).
The lobbying reached the highest levels of EU leadership. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen personally met with Thorn representatives, while Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson the main architect of Chat Control wrote to Thorn’s leadership saying “We have shared many moments on the journey to this proposal” and asked them to “help make sure that this launch is a successful one”.
Privacy activists struggle to get meetings with the Commission while commercial interests enjoy direct access to top decision-makers.
Chat Control has nothing to do with democracy; it reflects the kind of authoritarian surveillance seen in regimes like Russia or China. – Kolja Weber – CEO of FlokiNET
