Under proposed European Commission legislation, Google, Meta (Facebook), and other online service providers will be required to locate and remove online child pornography on their platforms..“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 [grooming] of children,” the commission said in a statement..The European Commission is the EU's politically independent executive arm. It is singularly responsible for drawing up proposals for new European legislation, and it implements the decisions of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU..Privacy groups say the news rules could put people’s communications at risk..Lobbying group, European Digital Rights, said the commission’s proposal could jeopardize the integrity of end-to-end encryption and pave the way for authoritarian surveillance tactics..The text marks a victory for child advocates, but a likely a setback for privacy advocates. The European executive unveiled its proposal on Wednesday to fight the online circulation of child sexual abuse material..“Providers of hosting services and providers of interpersonal communication services that have received a detection order shall execute it by installing and operating technologies to detect” the offending material on request of the authorities, the draft regulation states..The commission’s text says those technologies must be “effective”, “sufficiently reliable”, “state-of-the-art in the industry,” and “the least intrusive” so that they won’t “be able to extract any other information from the relevant communications than the information strictly necessary.”.Breaking the rules could mean fines up to 6% of annual business revenue or global turnover, which will be set by EU countries..The proposal is designed to replace the current system that employs voluntary detection and reporting by companies. This self-governance method is proving to be ineffective..The commission said there were more than one million reports of child sexual abuse in the European Union in 2020..The commission added the COVID-19 pandemic was a factor in the 64% rise in such reports in 2021..The companies will be required to report and remove old and new material. Instances of grooming must also be identified, reported, and removed..A dedicated EU Centre on Child Sexual Abuse will be formed to be home to subject matter experts who will inform police of investigation results..The rules will not only apply to hosting services, the measures extend also to interpersonal communication services such as messaging services, app stores and Internet access providers..The CEO of WhatsApp also expressed the same concerns surrounding online privacy in general..“Incredibly disappointing to see a proposed EU regulation on the internet fail to protect end-to-end encryption,” Will Cathcart, WhatsApp head, said on Twitter..“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.
