The EU is turning into a mass-surveillance state

Imagine a world where the state scans, monitors and reports the private messages of millions of citizens. It sounds like something out of a new dystopian bestseller. Unfortunately, it’s a real proposal being considered by the EU.

It’s called ‘Chat Control 2.0’. Originally tabled in the European Parliament in 2022, the bill proposes mass surveillance as a method to detect perpetrators of child sexual abuse. Four years later, the bill still looms over the privacy and free expression of Europeans.

The proposed bill is the radical successor to an existing voluntary scanning regime that has been in place since 2021 and will remain in force until 2028. Chat Control 2.0 was most recently discussed at an informal meeting between Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), the Council of the European Union and the European Commission – referred to as a trilogue negotiation.

The unprecedented surveillance proposed under Chat Control 2.0 has raised serious concerns – even in Brussels. The latest round of talks (the sixth since the bill was first proposed) failed to reach a consensus. The deadlock continues to centre on the question of who is targeted. As it stands, the European Parliament’s position is that only those suspected of being linked to child sexual abuse should be surveilled. Other parties are pushing for blanket surveillance.

Child sexual abuse is heinous and must be stopped – everyone agrees on that. But Chat Control 2.0 goes far beyond this. Every photo and message you send would be automatically scanned by AI software. This would be done without your consent and with no ability to opt out. Encrypted messages would also be subject to surveillance. It would effectively treat 450million European citizens as potential criminals.

The use of AI is particularly concerning. According to a 2023 European Parliament study on this exact topic, AI ‘would result in high error rates and a very large number of false positives’. Basically, it wouldn’t so much catch criminals as it would flag innocent suspects.

For state authorities to use AI to look over your texts as you draft them is almost the definition of modern technocratic totalitarianism. Add to this the security risks of creating a route around encryption, and the state-surveillance system could become a playground for cybercriminals.

Such developments from Brussels should no longer surprise us. This is the same institution that, in 2022, gave us the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA threatens some of the world’s largest social-media platforms with hefty fines – up to six per cent of global revenue – if they fail to remove so-called hate speech and disinformation from their platforms. EU-endorsed ‘trusted flaggers’ ensure that these companies toe the line.

All this was implemented in the name of ‘safety’, preventing foreign interference and ‘disinformation’. Yet the DSA’s draconian overreach makes it one of the greatest threats to freedom of expression and information in the world today. Chat Control 2.0 would be a further step down this worrying path, adding mass surveillance to the DSA’s existing speech control. It is a recipe for authoritarianism, not democracy.

We should certainly be relieved that there are strong voices advocating against Chat Control 2.0 in the EU. But we cannot afford to become complacent. Talks on this contested bill will resume in November, and we no longer have the luxury of taking a commonsense outcome for granted. If we want to preserve open debate and true democracy in Europe, we must oppose state surveillance and censorship every step of the way.

Adina Portaru is the director of Europe for the Alliance Defending Freedom International in Brussels. Follow her on X: @Adina_Portaru.