EU Parliament Hits "Urgent" Button on Chat Control Revival, Crypto Privacy Crowd Sighs

The European Parliament will hold a Thursday vote on whether to extend the so-called "chat control" rules, after lawmakers approved a rarely used urgent procedure in a 331-to-304 vote with 11 abstentions on Tuesday. The framework, which allows tech firms to scan private messages for child sexual abuse material, expired in early April, and the proposal would push it back into force. Pirate Party MEP Markéta Gregorová said on Tuesday that "Today's vote violates our own rules of procedure, the European Parliament decided to use an urgent procedure for Chat Control 1.0," adding: "This means that on Thursday, we will once again vote on extending the derogation that allowed online platforms to scan our private communications."

Rejecting or amending the proposal requires an absolute majority of 361 votes in Parliament, a threshold Gregorová flagged in her remarks. The Tuesday procedural vote came after Parliament in March rejected a temporary extension proposed by the European Commission in a vote of 311 against, 228 for and 92 abstentions. According to Euronews, the latest proposal was revived by the European People's Party, the largest group in Parliament, which largely voted against the measure in March because of amendments that narrowed the scope of the scans. European People's Party leader Manfred Weber has been pursuing an extension without changes.

The legal gap created by April's expiry currently permits messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, to take voluntary measures to identify users sharing abusive material. Last month, EU member states agreed to reinstate an interim "chat control" measure that allows service providers to detect, report, and remove abusive material until 2028. "The European People's Party is abusing its position as the largest political group to bring back, through a procedural loophole, a proposal that Parliament had already rejected," Gregorová said. "This is unprecedented."

The rules require platforms to scan end-to-end encrypted messages, a provision that has drawn criticism from privacy and cryptography advocates. The EU's MiCA 2.0 workstream is already looking at stablecoins and revised DeFi provisions, with the chat-control vote likely to intersect with broader encryption-policy debates. Parliament is scheduled to take up the extension vote on Thursday.