APPS such as WhatsApp and Facebook will be forced to scan messages for child sexual abuse material under newly proposed rules.
The European Commission has put forward regulation that would require software developers to find and remove the material.
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The move has sparked outrage among some privacy groups, who say it could put people’s communications at risk.
Companies that fail to comply with the rules face fines of up to 6 per cent of their annual income or global turnover.
The EU said its proposal announced Wednesday aimed to replace the current system of voluntary detection and reporting by companies.
It added that this system has proven to be insufficient to protect children.
The union cited the more than one million reports of child sexual abuse in the 27-country bloc in 2020.
It said that the COVID-19 pandemic was a factor in the 64 per cent rise in such reports in 2021 compared to the previous year.
On top of that, 60 per cent of child sexual abuse material worldwide is hosted on EU servers.
“The proposed rules introduce an obligation for relevant online service providers to assess the risk of their services’ misuse for the dissemination of child sexual abuse materials or for the solicitation of children (grooming),” the Commission said in a statement.
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The companies will then have to report and remove known and new images and videos, as well as cases of grooming.
An EU Centre on Child Sexual Abuse will be set up to act as a hub of expertise and to forward reports to the police.
The rules will apply to hosting services and interpersonal communication services such as messaging services, app stores and internet access providers.
The Commission’s proposal could endanger end-to-end encryption and open the door to authoritarian surveillance tactics, lobbying group European Digital Rights said.
Meta subsidiary WhatsApp echoed the same concerns.
“Incredibly disappointing to see a proposed EU regulation on the internet fail to protect end-to-end encryption,” Will Cathcart, WhatsApp head, said in a tweet.
“It’s important that any measures adopted do not undermine end-to-end encryption which protects the safety and privacy of billions of people, including children,” a Meta spokesperson said.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
