The Centre for Democracy & Technology Europe has submitted feedback to Member States regarding the latest proposal by the Belgian Presidency of the Council on the regulation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). As Belgium's rotating presidency concludes, Member States are striving to reach an agreement that will enable negotiations with the European Parliament post-elections.
"We recognise the importance of addressing the many harms caused by child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and the difficulties of trying to reach a common approach to advance the negotiations," stated CDT Non-Resident Fellow Sabine Witting. However, she noted that "the latest proposal fails to resolve the underlying problems stemming from the Member States’ obligations under the Charter of Fundamental Rights, such as the right to privacy, data protection and freedom of expression."
The new proposal's approach to detecting known and unknown CSAM introduces several inconsistencies with existing EU legislation, particularly with respect to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). The analysis covers various aspects including "the validity of consent as a legal basis for far-reaching scanning of users’ images and videos," along with "the conflicting obligations of service providers as controllers under GDPR" and "the contradicting reporting obligations of intermediary services under DSA."
The full briefing document is available for further details.
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