EU Parliament Bypasses Opposition to Ram Through Chat Surveillance Revival

A narrow majority of EU lawmakers cleared an urgency motion on Tuesday to revive Chat Control, the expired regulation that allowed tech platforms to scan private messages without suspicion, setting up a final vote before the summer recess.

The European Parliament voted 331 to 304 on Tuesday to bring a controversial chat-scanning regulation back from the dead, overriding its earlier rejection through a procedural maneuver that critics are calling unprecedented.

The regulation in question — Chat Control 1.0 — was a temporary derogation from the ePrivacy Directive that allowed platforms like Meta, Google, and Microsoft to voluntarily scan private chats, emails, and messenger services for child sexual abuse material. Parliament had refused to extend it, and the regulation expired on April 4, 2026.

Now, at the urging of EU member states and the conservative EPP group, Parliament President Roberta Metsola placed an urgency motion on the agenda at short notice, clearing the way for a final vote on Thursday — the last session before the summer break.

The procedural mechanics heavily favor passage. Because the law is in its second reading, amendments or a renewed rejection would require an absolute majority of 361 votes. But simply adopting the text only needs a simple majority of members present. With many MEPs already departed ahead of the recess, passage is considered almost unavoidable.

Had the urgency motion failed, the draft would have gone to the Civil Liberties committee, where a legally sound compromise could have been worked out after the summer break.

Opposition was vocal. Pirate MEP Markéta Gregorová accused the EPP of engaging in a farce and violating its own rules of procedure. AfD MEP Mary Khan described the maneuver as reviving an already-rejected law through the back door using salami-tactics. Rapporteur Birgit Sippel of the SPD called it an unfair maneuver by the EU countries and refused her support — but the Social Democratic group caved in beforehand, providing the necessary majority.

IT security researchers have repeatedly warned about unacceptably high error rates in the AI scans used to detect abuse material, arguing they endanger the privacy of innocent citizens. Civil rights advocates fear the revived temporary regulation will relieve political pressure to negotiate a more targeted and effective permanent successor — the stalled Chat Control 2.0, where five trilogue rounds have already failed to produce agreement.

The final vote is scheduled for Thursday. Unless a last-minute shift in attendance changes the math, private message scanning appears set to return across the EU.

Sources: heise online, Fight Chat Control