- A new initiative led by citizens can now help you have your word
- Experts are concerned with the negative impact that the bill will have on the confidentiality and security of citizens’ communications
- The Danish version of the so-called cat control could be adopted from October 14, 2025
If you are in the EU, you can now take measures against the controversial scanning bill for children’s sexual abuse (CSAM), which is currently discussed on the EU Council, thanks to a new initiative led by citizens.
Condered by criticisms such as cat control, the proposal was revealed for the first time in May 2022 to stop the propagation of CSAM content online by scanning all communications, especially those which are encrypted.
A proposal that attracted strong criticism and a repression of experts and legislators, cat control has never been closer to the passage. The Danish version of the bill could be adopted from October 14, 2025.
“Our objective is to allow citizens knowledge of the knowledge they need to understand the implications of this legislation and to encourage them to take measures by contacting their elected officials in the European Parliament and to national governments,” explain the people behind the Fight Cat Control Initiative, launched on August 6.
The website includes easy -to -understand information on the CSAM digitization proposal, while following the positions of EU member states and EU representatives.
By heading to the Action tab, you can contact your country’s MEPs in a few clicks to ask them to delete the controversial proposal. The website writes the message for you according to your concerns concerning the proposed law.
“We believe that confidentiality is a fundamental right and that end -to -end encryption is essential to protect our personal communications, financial information and digital identities. The cat control proposal would undermine these protections, potentially exposing citizens to new safety risks and monitoring without significant advantages.”
What is the next step for Europeans’ cats?
As early as its first disclosure in 2022, the cat’s proposal saw many twists and turns such as privacy defenders, technologists and even politicians raised concerns. Concern for which the Council did not conclude an agreement.
The most controversial point is around encryption, technology that WhatsApp, Signal, encryption providers encrypted like Protonmail and even the best VPN applications use to guarantee that the content of your communications remains deprived of you and who tells you.
Over the years, the EU council has tried to find a compromise – without any success.
According to its first version, all messaging software suppliers would be required to carry out a blind analysis of private messages to search for the CSAM. The counterpoux was strong, the European Court of Human Rights prohibiting all legal efforts to weaken the encryption of secure communications in Europe.
In June 2024, Belgium proposed a new text more compromised to target only shared photos, videos and URLs, with the permission of users. In February 2025, Poland tried to find a better compromise by making the Chat Cat Cat Voluntary and classified as “prevention”.
Quick advance until July 2025, Denmark reintroduced cat control as the main legislative priority on its first day of presidency, and presented a new compromise text, that the former deputy deputy for the lawyer for the rights of German pirates, Patrick Breyer, considered the “more radical version” so far.
Above all, the momentum is growing among the EU member states to safeguard legislation. At the time of writing the editorial staff, according to the latest Fight Chat Control data, 15 Member States support the law (including France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Ireland), nine are indecisive (such as Estonia, Germany and Belgium), and only three are opposed to the bill in its current form (Austria, born from born and Poloue).
On September 12, 2025, the Council was expected to share its final stations, the vote should take place on October 14.
