A leaked document from the European Union (EU) revealed that Spain is in strong support of effecting a total ban on end-to-end encryption to enable the scanning of private messages for illegal content.
Spain’s Aggressive Anti-Encryption Stand
Last year in May, the EU proposed a law that would require platforms to check their content for illegal material, particularly child sexual abuse material (CSAM), in an attempt to curb the increased exchange and upload of CSAM material over the internet.
The legislation would require companies to scan through users’ private messages in order to to “detect, report, block, and remove” CSAM from their platforms. This is similar to what Apple considered doing voluntarily in order to protect children before backlash compelled it to change its mind.
The proposed legislation by the European Union is highly controversial because it may compromise end-to-end encryption and user privacy. The bill, introduced by EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, has already faced warnings from lawyers who believe it is likely illegal and could be overturned in court.
Despite the debate, a leaked document obtained by Wired shows that Spain backs the proposed action and has suggested even stronger measures. The document is a report from the Council of The European Union that details the views of nearly 20 EU member states on creating a law to prevent the spread of CSAM across the continent.
And while most of the countries supported some degree of scanning of encrypted messages, Spain took the most aggressive anti-encryption stand saying:
“Ideally, in our view, it would be desirable to legislatively prevent EU-based service providers from implementing end-to-end encryption.”
When contacted for comments on the same, Spain, through a spokesperson for Spain’s Ministry of Interior, Daniel Campos de Diego, stated that their stance on the matter has always been clear. He further affirmed that in order to protect people’s safety, nations should have the right to interfere in private conversations.
As expected, the country’s position in the matter received a lot of responses and reactions. Researcher Riana Pfefferkorn of The Stanford Internet Observatory in California said:
“I am surprised to see Spain openly stating that there should be legislation that prohibits EU-based service providers from implementing encryption end to end.”
The issue of undermining end-to-end encryption has been a concern since the EU publicized the proposed bill. Many civil rights groups and security experts expressed their frustration with the proposition considering that the security measure has become a default on apps such as iMessage and Signal.
Incredibly disappointing to see a proposed EU regulation on the internet fail to protect end-to-end encryption. https://t.co/1W1HixQUVJ
— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) May 11, 2022
Regardless, Spain asserted that “Law enforcement authorities must have the means to be able to continue to fulfill their legal obligations now that many criminals have moved to the virtual world. It is imperative that we have access to the data – for which they must be retained – and it is equally imperative that we have the capacity to analyze them, no matter how large the volume. “
EU Proposal Receives Mixed Reviews From Member States
Aside from Spain, it seems that a number of nations have agreed to allow police access to people’s encrypted chats and messages. In the document, Cyprus claimed that it is important for law enforcement to have access to encrypted communications in order to look into offenses involving online sexual abuse adding that the “impact of this regulation is significant because it will set a precedent for other sectors in the future.
On the other hand, Germany which has strongly been opposing the proposal since last year said, “Germany believes it is necessary among other things to state in the draft text that no technologies will be used which disrupt, weaken, circumvent or modify encryption.” The country necessitated that the draft be revised before it would accept it.