President of the European Parliament attempts to push through rejected chat control
Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, is attempting to introduce the controversial ‘chat control’ via a remarkable detour. Although Parliament has repeatedly voted against the mass scanning of private messages, she has now directly requested EU member states to approve the rejected proposal regardless.
Diplomats describe this unilateral step as “unprecedented.” The temporary legislation (chat control 1.0), which allowed tech giants such as Google, Meta, and Microsoft to voluntarily scan chat messages, expired in early April following stalled negotiations. These tech companies are strongly pushing for an extension of the measure and indicate that they will continue to carry out ‘voluntary actions’ on communication services on their own initiative in the meantime.
There is significant outrage within the European Parliament. Policymakers feel bypassed by Metsola’s action. There are fears that this course of action seriously and permanently undermines the democratic influence and the formal negotiating position of the Parliament.
Read the Politico Article for more information.