State ministers comprising the EU Council have rallied behind a softer stance on draft legislation that initially sought to force Big Tech companies to tackle child pornography on their platforms.
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The agreement represents a favorable outcome for U.S. tech giants such as Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google and Meta (META). It comes at a time when the EU’s crackdown on U.S. tech companies in areas of policy, such as artificial intelligence usage regulation, and digital services tax, has ruffled the bloc’s ties with President Donald Trump’s administration.
EU States Back Power to ‘Oblige’ to Remove Child Porn
On Wednesday, the EU Council announced that members agreed to grant domestic watchdogs in each member country the power to “oblige” companies to remove and block access to content on their platforms. Online platforms will still have the responsibility to prevent the dissemination of such material and the solicitation of children on their platforms.
The legislation dates back to 2022, when the European Commission introduced the child sexual abuse material proposal to address the inefficiency in the current policy approach that requires online platforms to voluntarily detect and report such abuse.
In November 2023, EU lawmakers agreed to draft rules that will force operators of messaging platforms, owners of app stores, and internet access providers to report and take down identified images and videos, including in cases of grooming.
The proposal attracted debate on the need to ensure safety online versus how such a policy could erode people’s privacy, leading to mass surveillance.
EU to Make Temporary Voluntary Measure Permanent
Meanwhile, as part of the proposal backed by the EU Council, a temporary measure that requires online platforms to voluntarily scan their platforms for child sexual abuse content and to report and remove it will continue to apply after its April 2026 deadline. The Council has proposed to make it permanent.
“Online companies have to provide assistance for victims who would like child sexual abuse material depicting them to be removed, or for access to such material to be disabled,” the Council further explained in a statement.
The new proposal still needs to be negotiated with the European Parliament before it can become an implementable law. The Council agreement on the legislation comes less than a month after media reports indicated that the European Commission was preparing to streamline the bloc’s tech laws, including its flagship privacy rules, to make Europe more economically competitive amid the AI boom.
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