EU Parliament greenlights Chat Control 1.0 – Breyer: “Our children lose out”

The EU Parliament has allowed Chat Control 1.0 to pass despite a majority of voting MEPs opposing it (314 against, 276 in favor), because the rejection motion failed to reach the required absolute majority of 361 votes. This reinstates warrantless mass scanning of private unencrypted messages on platforms like Instagram, Discord, Gmail, and iCloud until 2028. End-to-end encrypted services like WhatsApp remain exempt. Critics including civil rights activist Patrick Breyer and abuse survivors argue the measure is ineffective, generates massive false-positive rates (48% of alerts not criminally relevant, 99% of Meta reports being previously known material), and undermines the privacy that survivors rely on. Negotiations for a permanent 'Chat Control 2.0' regulation resume in September, with the core dispute being targeted vs. suspicionless scanning.