The Danish government will no longer push for chat control!

Here's a machine translation of what the Danish newspaper Berlingske has to say about it.

Fair warning: The journalists in Berlingske don't seem to have the slightest idea what they are talking about, and are enthusiastically gobbling up the Kool-Aid served to them by Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard, a man who is on the record claiming that privacy is not a human right (it is). Don't expect to gain any worthwhile neural connections in your brain by reading the below.

Danish proposal on digital child protection dropped after German criticism

Danish EU presidency could not create support for proposals to scan messages for abuse material.

The government will no longer force tech giants to scan citizens' messages for imagery of sexual abuse of children.

The Danish EU Presidency is thus withdrawing its proposal after Germany and later the ruling Moderates have opposed it. This is stated in a written comment.

"This will mean that the injunction will not be part of the EU Presidency's new compromise proposal and that it should continue to be voluntary for tech giants to track down material with child sexual abuse," Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said.

He sits at the table end in the work to get the CSA regulation adopted under the Danish EU Presidency, which lasts until the New Year.

The regulation was originally proposed by the European Commission in 2022. It will be able to force tech companies to scan the contents of private citizens’ images and videos on encrypted services.

But both Germany and since the Moderates withdrew their support for the proposal because it was too intrusive.

Hummelgaard, however, believes that Denmark's proposal was less intrusive than the EU Commission's original proposal. And he highlights that Save the Children, Unicef, Children's Terms and Digital Responsibility gave their clear backing.

However, the risk of losing an important tool is highly weighted.

"Right now, we are in a situation where we risk completely losing a central tool in the fight against sexual assault against children, because the current scheme that allows for voluntary scanning expires in April 2026," he said.

That's why we have to act no matter what. We owe it to all the children who are subjected to monstrous abuses, says Peter Hummelgaard.

The government's original proposal will break with fundamental freedoms and will potentially result in mass surveillance of citizens in the EU, the critics said. Among other things, they count hundreds of scientists and experts, the Dataetian Council and the tech giants themselves.

Germany has directly called it "mass surveillance" in the past.

"The mass surveillance of private messages must be taboo in a rule of law," the German Ministry of Justice wrote at X.

Save the Children calls the previous volunteer tracing via scanning a "huge success" and is frustrated that there was no backing for a compromise.

"We are deeply concerned and frustrated that there has been no European support for a compromise where tech companies may be required to track down and remove photos and videos with sexual assaults on children," senior adviser at digital child protection Tashi Andersen said in a written commentary.