The news in brief
• Sweden has approved the controversial mass surveillance law “Chat control”, which requires chat services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to introduce backdoors to read messages.
• The law aims to protect children from online grooming, but has been criticized for opening up mass surveillance and risking privacy.
• Several political parties and IT security experts have expressed concern that the law could be misused for purposes other than combating child abuse.
The trips around the Chat control law have been many and long. The law, which is actually called the CSAM Regulation, aims to protect children from online grooming.
In concrete terms, the law means that all chat company services, such as Whats app and Facebook messenger, must build in so-called back doors, a software that makes it possible to read the chats. This feature has been criticized by cyber security experts across Europe who believe that the back doors could open up mass surveillance.
Compromise proposal ineffective
Politicians, most recently from Hungary, have worked on the proposal in several rounds, trying to limit the mass surveillance risk with the legislation. For example, by writing into the law what these back doors may be used for. But according to the experts, this is not enough.
– The European Commission seems to have a distorted idea that it is the EU that rules the whole world. If we force these apps to build in backdoors and then legislate that these can only be used to look for child abuse material – that in no way means that companies, states and other actors will refrain from using the feature for a range of other things. Why would they abstain, IT security specialist Karl Emil Nikka asked himself last autumn.
Now Sweden has therefore stood behind Hungary’s compromise. The government and the Social Democrats voted yes. SD, V, C and MP reported a so-called “dissenting opinion” on the issue, that is, they voted no.
Opens up to mass surveillance
Adam Marttinen (SD) is very critical of Chat control. On his way from the meeting with the justice committee, he says “they voted yes to Hungary” to the S member Mattias Vepsä.
– The government and the Social Democrats chose to support the Hungarian compromise proposal. We believe that this proposal is far too far-reaching and that encryption is broken as a result.
If the proposal goes through and becomes law throughout the EU, it opens the door to mass surveillance, according to Marttinen.
– That will be the case. You will lose trust in encrypted services, says Marttinen.
Adam Marttinen (SD) and his party say no to Chat control. Photo: Pontus Lundahl/TT
He emphasizes that there is a risk that the EU will use this software to search for other crimes than just grooming children online.
– You will certainly include terrorism and other crimes, this is a sloping plan where you see an effectiveness in the tool and want to use it for other types of crimes. I see that as a tangible risk, says Adam Marttinen.
A: Important for the children
Mattias Vepsä (S), who is in favor of Chat control, believes that it is an important law to combat child abuse crimes online.
– There are millions of children who are exposed. With this proposal, you can balance the privacy aspect against the possibility of fighting crime, says Mattias Vepsä.
But all the experts say that the changes are ineffective?
– I think it is important that we take a broad responsibility here and put the children in focus.
How do you see the risk that a foreign power could use this software to monitor Europe?
– I’m not that well informed, but I suspect that foreign powers already have advanced technology for surveillance today. And it is something for our security police, to fight influence operations, says the S member.
Risk of LGBTQ people being mapped
Mikael Damsgaard (M) is the new group leader for the Moderates in the justice committee. He agrees with S that Chat control is important in combating crimes against children.
– We think that proposal is well balanced and is well in line with previous Swedish lines. Great strides have been made to achieve a better balance between the law enforcement purpose and personal integrity.
But the back doors are still going there, which means that the proposal is ineffective according to experts, how do you view that criticism?
– What is forgotten in that criticism is that this proposal sets much higher requirements in order to be able to decide whether to issue a tracking order. It is required that it is a service that is in the highest risk category for the dissemination of abusive material. It is required that the authorities can demonstrate and prove that there is a risk of abuse material being spread in this chat service. This means that these services have very good opportunities to take measures so that you don’t have to build in back doors.
Hungary, whose politician produced the compromise proposal, has a law that states that it is forbidden to spread images and material deemed to promote homosexuality to minors, something that experts have pointed out as a risk area for Chat control.
– We in the EU are all bound by EU law, which provides extensive protection for personal integrity, says Mikael Damsgaard.
Karl Emil Nikka, who is an IT security expert, says that it is a sad day for both Sweden and the world.
What do you say about the politicians’ explanation that this compromise is well balanced?
– It just shows that they have not understood at all what it is they have decided on. Even if there are texts now that say full-length encryption must be allowed, it is ineffective if there are to be back doors at the same time, he says.
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