Tech companies urge Europe to swiftly extend voluntary chat control

Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Snap are asking the European Union to reach an agreement on extending monitoring chat communication for potential child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

The European Commission has tried to introduce new legislation to protect children from online abuse, including monitoring all messages that are being sent before they are encrypted. This proposal is also known as “chat control” or client-side scanning.

Over the past three years, numerous proposals have been discussed at the EU level, but no agreement has been reached.

Pending a durable framework, an existing derogation of the ePrivacy Directive, which allowed messaging services to scan communications to identify and report illegal content, was extended repeatedly.

In March 2026, the European Parliament agreed to a shorter extension and a more targeted chat monitoring.

Members of the European Parliament proposed applying chat control only to individuals a judge suspects of distributing CSAM. In addition, the European Parliament asked for an exception for end-to-end encrypted messages to protect the general use of encryption against backdoors.

However, the European Parliament and Member States couldn’t reach a compromise as the Member States didn’t want to weaken chat monitoring. Therefore, the European Parliament refused to extend the existing derogation of the ePrivacy Directive, which expired on April 3rd.

In a joint statement, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Snap state that they wish to continue protecting children and preserving privacy.

“While EU institutions rightly expect technology companies to take action on child safety, the April 3rd expiry of the derogation clouds the legal certainty that has helped responsible platforms try to protect our communities, safeguard child victims, and preserve the integrity of our services. We are disappointed by this irresponsible failure to reach an agreement to maintain established efforts to protect children online,” the US tech companies say.

As Europe continues to negotiate an interim solution, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Snap reaffirm their commitment to protect children online. They call on Europe to conclude negotiations on a regulatory framework and allow them to keep children from “the most abhorrent harm.”