EU divided over encryption-busting to stop child sexual abuse

Deep divisions within the EU over weakening encryption on messaging apps such as WhatsApp in order to crack down on the sharing of child sexual abuse is putting off a decision on the issue.

EU ambassadors were to have tackled the matter in a meeting on Thursday, but dropped it from their agenda because of wariness by several countries -- including Germany -- over a fear they could be opening the door to disproportionate snooping on Europeans' private online communications.

"It became apparent that the qualified majority needed simply wouldn't be reached," a Belgian diplomat said.

"The item was withdrawn from the agenda and consultations will go on," the diplomat said, on condition of anonymity.

The European Commission has been pushing the issue as a key tool to crack down on the spread of images of child sexual abuse online.

It wants platforms and messaging app companies to be able to screen content sent through their services to detect the illegal images.

But to be able to do that, the companies will need to be able to peel back the encryption many apply to services such as WhatsApp, Signal and others to see what users are sending and receiving.

While the European Union already has a landmark law, the Digital Services Act, that aims to curb illegal online content, it does not apply to messaging apps, which users consider private spaces.

With the impasse, the issue will be kicked down the road for further discussions that will take place under the EU presidency of Hungary, which takes on the role from Belgium.

According to the European Commission, Meta -- parent of Facebook -- in 2022 detected more than 6.6 million images of child sexual abuse on its Instagram and Messenger platforms involving a user inside the European Union.

X, formerly Twitter, has shut down 2.3 million user accounts because of child sexual exploitation content.