EU lawmakers back reinstating interim rules to allow Big Tech to tackle child pornography

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS, July 9 (Reuters) - EU lawmakers backed a proposal on Thursday to reinstate temporary rules to allow Google, Meta Platforms and other online platforms to detect and remove online child sexual abuse materials.

However, they also voted to exempt end-to-end encrypted communications such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal, underscoring concerns about mass scanning that could lead to privacy breaches.

The issue pits advocates ​of online safety ​measures against ⁠privacy activists worried about surveillance.

Lawmakers and countries on both sides of the divide failed to agree on permanent rules last month following a dispute on the scope of detection.

The temporary rules, in place from 2021 to April this year, exempted online platforms from strict online privacy rules and had aimed to give EU countries and lawmakers time to agree on a permanent solution to tackle online child pornography.

Lawmaker Marketa Gregorova from the Pirate Party voiced her concerns about reinstating the interim rules.

"Protecting encryption was one of our priorities, and I am therefore glad that we managed to secure an absolute majority for an amendment that at least preserves encryption," she said.

"At the same time, however, voluntary mass scanning unfortunately passed."

EU countries have three months to decide whether to back the European Parliament's changes to their proposal. 

The European Commission had proposed a draft rule on child sexual abuse material in 2022, but progress to agree the law has been slow as both sides have criticised it.  

Big Tech has lobbied against any requirement for messaging services, ⁠app ​stores and internet access providers to ​report and remove known and new images and videos, as well as cases ​of grooming.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Barbara Lewis)