Leak: EU interior ministers want to exempt themselves from chat control bulk scanning of private messages

The article reports that a leaked draft of the EU’s proposed Child Sexual Abuse Regulation reveals interior ministers are seeking exemptions for professional accounts used by intelligence, police, military personnel and themselves from the mandatory “chat‑control” system that would scan private messages in bulk. The draft (Article 1 (2a)) would also exclude “confidential information” such as professional secrets (Article 1 (2b)), while the governments reject a clause requiring the new EU Child Protection Centre to assist them in preventing abuse and developing best‑practice prevention measures (Article 43(8)). Critics argue this shows officials recognise how unreliable and intrusive the scanning algorithms are, fearing that even unrelated military or governmental communications could be exposed, possibly to foreign actors. They contend the exemptions undermine the stated child‑protection goal, exposing citizens, victims and professionals (doctors, therapists, lawyers) to privacy violations, as algorithms cannot reliably differentiate protected communications. The article also notes that most data currently captured by voluntary scanning tools are unrelated to criminal investigations, often consisting of personal photos or consensual content. It warns that the exemption for officials creates a double standard, allowing them to avoid the privacy erosion imposed on the public. The piece argues that genuine child protection requires scientific evaluation, multidisciplinary prevention programmes, Europe‑wide standards, and proper investigative tools—not mass surveillance. According to the leak, EU governments aim to adopt the chat‑control legislation by early June.