European Parliament moves to exclude encrypted chats from voluntary message scanning

The European Parliament adopted amendments on 9 July 2026 to a proposed exemption from EU privacy rules covering the voluntary detection of child sexual abuse material in private communications.

Under Parliament’s position, communications protected by end-to-end encryption would fall outside the measure. This would affect services such as WhatsApp and Messenger when encryption prevents anyone other than the sender and recipient from reading a message.

The exemption would allow communication services to voluntarily identify, remove and report child sexual abuse material and attempts to solicit children online. Critics have raised concerns about the privacy implications of scanning private messages, while supporters argue that the measure is needed to protect children.

Two disputed amendments were approved by narrow margins, receiving 369 and 362 votes. The result reflected divisions between and within Parliament’s political groups over privacy protections and the scope of the detection measures.

The previous temporary exemption expired on 3 April 2026 after Parliament and the Council failed to agree on an extension. The proposal returned to Parliament for a second reading after the Council adopted its own position.

Parliament’s amended text will now be sent to the Council, which has three months to accept or reject the changes. If it does not approve all the amendments, the two institutions will enter negotiations to seek a common text.

The temporary measure is separate from negotiations on permanent EU legislation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse online. Those negotiations remain unfinished.