Briefing Document on the Latest Belgian Presidency’s Proposal on the Regulation on Child Sexual Abuse Material
Also authored by CDT Non-Resident Fellow Sabine Witting.
The Centre for Democracy & Technology Europe submitted feedback to the Member States analysing the latest proposal by the Belgian Presidency of the Council. As the rotating Presidency comes to an end, Member States are attempting to reach an agreement that would allow the negotiations to move forward with the European Parliament after the 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. However, 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.
In addition, the new approach to detect known and unknown CSAM in this latest proposal creates a number of inconsistencies with existing EU legislation, particularly the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). In this analysis, we analyse several aspects of the proposal including the validity of consent as a legal basis for the far-reaching scanning of users’ images and videos, the conflicting obligations of service providers as controllers under GDPR, and the contradicting reporting obligations of intermediary services under the DSA.
