Germany against client-side scanning

While the UK is trying to undermine encryption with the Online Safety Bill, in Germany, the
reservations against breaking up encryption to allow client-side scanning are very high.

This has
been proven once again during the German Parliament’s Digital Committee hearing
on March 1st. While the German Parliament, however,
does not have a say on the EU Commission’s proposal to fight child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online, the
results of this hearing have been overwhelming:

All experts, including child protector organizations, agree that the EU proposal goes too far and that it would
undermine fundamental human rights protected by the EU Constitution.

So, what’s the point of passing a law that will be overturned again by the European Court of Justice (ECJ)?

While the German Parliament itself is not directly involved with the EU Commission’s proposal to make client-side scanning of encrypted communication
mandatory for online services, the hearing was still a great success for digital rights
groups and privacy activists.

The draft law itself is being negotiated between the EU Commission, the European Parliament and the member states in the Council of Ministers.
In this context, the German government can have a deciding influence in the Council of Ministers.

And, to the very least,
the German government wants the removal of client-side scanning, i.e. the examination of communications
content on end devices, from the proposal.

It has historical reasons that
Germany wants to become the encryption site number one.

Read here how the EU Commission lies to push f