Federal Council speaks out against the introduction of chat control
Published: Friday, Sep 27th 2024, 11:10
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Switzerland is to be spared the chat controls being discussed in the EU in the fight against child pornography. In a report published on Friday, the Federal Council stated that there is no intention to introduce such a measure in Switzerland.
According to the Federal Council, however, problems could arise with the EU if the EU introduces such chat monitoring. Citizens in Switzerland could then also be affected if they use services offered in the EU, as stated in the report "Regulations on preventing and combating the sexual abuse of children".
The background to this is the EU Commission's plans to oblige providers such as Google and Facebook to use software to search their services for child abuse images under certain circumstances. Critics fear that the so-called disclosure order could lead to mass surveillance. In a motion, the National Council called on the Federal Council to protect Swiss residents from this measure.
If the EU adopts the measure, it could be in conflict with Swiss law and in particular with the principle of territoriality, the Federal Council stated. According to this principle, Swiss officials may not carry out any actions for a foreign state that are the responsibility of an authority or official without authorization. However, the exact implications were initially unclear.
In the summer, negotiations between the EU member states on chat control broke down for the time being due to concerns raised by several countries. In addition to the disclosure order, there were also differences on issues relating to end-to-end encryption.
Hungary has held the Presidency of the Council of the EU since July and submitted a new compromise proposal. This was recently the subject of further discussions. The EU countries would have to negotiate the final legal text with the Parliament and Commission before the new rules could come into force.
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