EU lawmakers revisit chat control rules: Where should cryptocurrency go?

EU lawmakers have restarted a vote on extending the EU\'s temporary \"chat control\" framework, a decision that could allow online platforms to continue scanning private information for child sexual abuse material until 2028.

Summary

EU lawmakers will vote on Thursday on whether to extend the temporary proxy chat scanning rule until 2028.

Privacy advocates and crypto industry insiders have warned that the proposal could weaken the security of encrypted communications and digital assets.

The blockchain organization said that mandatory client-side scanning could expose crypto wallets to new security risks and increase the compliance burden on developers. [TAG

The European Parliament approved a rare emergency procedure on Tuesday to schedule a revote on Thursday after the new legal framework expires in early April. If approved, the extension would maintain the temporary electronic privacy exemption while permanent legal negotiations continue. [TAG

The procedural motion was carried by a narrow margin: 331 Members voted in favour, 304 against and 11 abstained. Marketa Gregorova, a member of the European Parliament and a member of the Pirate Party, said the decision revived a proposal that Parliament had rejected earlier this year and considered it unprecedented to use emergency procedures to reconsider the proposal. She noted that an absolute majority (361 votes) is now needed to veto or amend the proposal, making Thursday\'s vote more difficult for opponents. Previously, Parliament had voted against the temporary extension in March because the amendment proposal at the time narrowed the scope of information scanning.

Political differences in parliament emerge again

The proposal came back on the agenda because the European People\'s Party, the largest political group in Parliament, supported another attempt to extend the rule. Party leader Manfred Weber has been looking for a way to push the measure without including the revisions that led to previous vetoes. Last month, EU member states separately agreed to restore a temporary version of the framework, allowing service providers to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse material until 2028.

Since the legal basis before April expired, messaging platforms including WhatsApp can voluntarily conduct such testing rather than under the EU interim framework. If lawmakers eventually restore the framework, Web3 projects that provide wallet-based messaging or decentralized social features may need to introduce content monitoring systems or disable these services for EU users to comply with regulations. Some industry participants are concerned that similar jurisprudence may eventually be applied to blockchain transaction data and smart contract infrastructure.

The crypto industry expresses concerns

Outside parliament, the proposal has also been partially criticized in the cryptocurrency and blockchain fields for its possible impact on the security of encrypted communications and digital assets. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has previously said that introducing systematic backdoors in encrypted communications would weaken security for everyone, rather than improve it. He also questioned leaked reports that certain government officials were seeking exemptions from the legislation, saying such proposals raised concerns about legal consistency.

A policy document released by the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications focuses on client-side scanning-a system that checks messages, images and documents on a device before encryption. The association warns that integrating such scanning tools into operating systems or applications could provide an attractive target for attackers to gain mnemonics, session keys or share of multi-party calculations for cryptographic wallets. The document also states that mandatory scanning of components could expose open source wallet developers and decentralized application builders to additional legal and security responsibilities if vulnerabilities occur.

The association further believes that stricter compliance requirements may hinder the development of privacy technologies in Europe, including research on zero-knowledge proof systems, and prompt developers to move projects out of the region.