- The signal said that EU’s “cat control” legislation is comparable to malware
- He also plans to leave Europe if the bill has been adopted
- Chat control is back on the legislators’ table on October 14
The signal of the secure encrypted messaging application said that the EU’s proposal to scan all private messages from all citizens would work as targeted spy software.
What has been nicknamed by its criticisms, chat control is the European Commission’s security online security. According to the last iteration of the text, all the messaging platforms operating in the EU would be forced to scan all the URLs, images and videos shared by their users in the search for sexual children’s equipment (CSAM).
This compulsory scan should occur directly on the device and, in the case of encrypted applications, before messages are encrypted. A requirement which, according to The signal cannot be compatible with the operation of the encryption.
“Apart from the legal bit, this is exactly the malware works. It compromises your device in order to access information,” said the signal vice-president for global affairs, Udbhav Tiwari.
“Very simply, the idea that a device will analyze the content before it is encrypted for us denies the very purpose of encryption.”
Unveiled for the first time in 2022, the EU has never been closer to acceptance of the proposal for the Sexual Abuse Regulations on children (CSAR), with a crucial meeting set for October 14.
The signal could leave Europe
The signal said on several occasions that if an obligation to create a stolen carriage of encryption should become law, the company Prefer to leave this market rather than weakening encryption. A position that Meredith Whittaker, president of the signal non -profit foundation, behind the encrypted service, recently reiterated in a German media.
Speaking during an online event organized by the European Greens Day, Tiwari also confirmed that it was not planned to “make two signal versions”. Whoever makes a customer side scan and who does not do so.
“For the signal, this is an existential catastrophic risk to provide our services in the European Union. This would cancel the main promises to our users, and I think it is a risk that many people will face,” he said.
The signal and other experts have long argued that the digitization on the customer side would break the protection of encryption, which is used by the best VPN and other encrypted applications to protect your data against unauthorized access. In the end, this will also create a vulnerable end point that malicious actors can also exploit.
Germany: the decisive factor
Before a crucial The cat’s control meeting fixed for October 14, Germany remains a decisive vote. However, the government continues to send mixed messages.
Germany is one of the countries that have moved their positions before the important day, in fact. After joining the countries opposing compulsory chat digitization in September, the nation is again among the undecided countries, according to the latest data.
This is why Whittaker urges German citizens to “let German politicians know how harmful, counterproductive and self-sabotage”.
📣 Germany is about to reverse its opposition in principle to mass monitoring and the digitization of private messages and the support of the cat control bill. This could end private – and signals – in the EU.October 6, 2025
The signal is certainly not the only one to feel this way. Cryptographers, technologists, digital rights experts and even some politicians have long warned of implications such as the digitization of confidential conversations of all citizens will have for their privacy and their security.
Certain European government organizations, including those of Sweden and the Netherlands, have also judged the deployment of a supposedly customer scintigator on all devices a risk of unacceptable cybersecurity for national security. The outcry has prompted chat control legislators to add a provision excluding all governments and military accounts. Obviously, however, the risk is worth it for all of us.
According to Tiwari, continue to put pressure for compulsory digitization regardless of risks is ultimately a “slippery slope with the global consequences”. What will start with CSAM digitization could extend to terrorism, intellectual properties and, who knows, what else. A capacity that could also give a new and more disruptive means for authoritarian governments to restrict the rights of their citizens.
“There are global consequences for the creation of these technological capacities. We should very strongly repel because if it ends up being implemented, we would have crossed a threshold which I do not think we will be able to return as a company.”
