- Denmark has reintroduced the bill for digitizing sexual abuse (CSAM) disputed on the first day of its EU presidency
- The so-called cat control proposal could be adopted from October 14, 2025
- The proposal failed to attract the majority necessary since May 202222
Denmark launched its EU presidency on July 1, 2025 and, among its first actions, the legislators quickly reintroduced the controversial sweeping bill of sexual abuse (CSAM) at the top of the agenda.
Having been considered by criticisms as chat control, the bill aims to introduce new obligations for all messaging services operating in Europe to analyze user cats, even if they are encrypted.
The proposal, however, has failed to attract the necessary majority since May 2022, the presidency of Poland being the last to abandon such a plan.
Denmark is a fervent supporter of cat control. Now, the new rules could be adopted on October 14, 2025, if the Danish presidency manages to find common ground among the members of the countries.
Cat control is back – what we know so far
The Danish parliament has not yet revealed the content of the new compromises. At the time of the drafting of this document, we know that another meeting is scheduled for later this week (July 11), legislators should deliberate on the bill on October 14 (see page 31 on the agenda).
We also know that among the objectives of the Danish presidency of the EU, there is a commitment to “focus on strengthening the capacity to use digital development for the application of laws when fighting serious crimes, while approaching the abusive use of new technologies for criminal or harmful purposes”, we read in the Denmark program.
The so-called cat control aims to stop the propagation of CSAM content online by scanning all communications, especially those encrypted. Over the years, however, the proposal has experienced twists and turns such as privacy defenders, technologists and even politicians have raised concerns.
Experts fear that these new obligations will undermine encryption protections. Encryption is a technology that WhatsApp, Signal, Protonmail and even the best VPN applications use to blur user messages in an illegible form, preventing unauthorized access and ensuring that cats remain private.
According to its first version, all suppliers of messaging software would be required to carry out a blind analysis of private messages to search for the CSAM – the “Customer side scan”. The proposal was encountered with a strong reaction and the European Court of Human Rights ended up prohibiting all legal efforts to weaken the encryption of secure communications in Europe.
In June 2024, Belgium then proposed a new text to target only shared photos, videos and URLs, on the permission of users. This version was not satisfied with industry or EU members because of its coercive nature. According to the Belgian text, users must give their consent to the shared equipment analyzed before being encrypted to continue using the functionality.
🇬🇧🚨 Under the Danish direction, #ChatControl must be adopted on October 14! (PJuly 1, 2025
Quick advance until February 2025, Poland tried to find a better compromise by sweeping volunteer quantified cats instead of compulsory and classified as “prevention”. While the experts have found this version a “major progress”, they have always deplored the risk of mass supervision and, ultimately, the legislators failed to attract the necessary majority.
We could then expect the Danish text to try to find a compromise that calls on most members of the country.
According to the former European deputy for the German pirate party, Patrick Breyer, Denmark has crucially to convince Germany of its proposed text. The new government has not yet taken a stand at the time of the editorial staff.
What is certain, however, is that the controversial CSAM scanning bill is far from being the only proposal threatening encryption in Europe.
In the latest of these efforts, on June 24, 2025, the European Commission published the first stage of its Protective strategy, which sought to allow the law enforcement organizations to decipher your private data by 2030.
