Leaked Docs Show EU Wants Mass Surveillance Of Messages, Photos, and To Mandate Online Age Verification

A leaked European Union Council document shows that the bloc’s legislative arm wants to implement mass surveillance of all private messages and introduce mandatory age verification, starting September 28.

This means that the Spanish presidency intends to quickly make the contested proposed legislation, sometimes referred to as “chat control” by critics, into law. As soon as on Thursday, member-countries’ ambassadors are set to meet to provide a majority needed to pass the draft.

German MEP Patrick Breyer, who is one of the vocal critics of the bill and also has a role of co-negotiating it in parliament, has reacted to the news by warning that the proposal provides nothing but “a smokescreen” when it addresses the issue of end-to-end encryption.