Estonian Parliament opposes EU plan to monitor private online conversations

TALLINN - The European Union Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) decided on Friday that Estonia cannot support the draft European Union regulation for preventing and combating child sexual abuse, as it would lead to an unprecedented violation of privacy.

The European Commission presented the regulation proposal in 2022 to establish rules for preventing and combating child sexual abuse. To date, a compromise acceptable to all member states has not been reached. Some countries are willing to accept a greater infringement on privacy rights, while for others, such as Estonia, ensuring privacy is a higher priority.

Estonia supports the general objectives of the draft regulation - protecting children from sexual abuse, preventing the dissemination of corresponding online content, and bringing perpetrators to justice - but cannot support the blanket scanning of user-shared content, such as images, videos, or web addresses. Furthermore, Estonia believes that if a person refuses to consent to scanning and their access to a service is restricted as a result, it constitutes a violation of the principle of voluntary consent.

The chairman of the European Union Affairs Committee, Peeter Tali, stated that while the fight against and prevention of child sexual abuse is certainly necessary online, Estonia cannot in any way agree with the European Commission's proposal for the blanket scanning of message files before they are sent.

"It is unthinkable that we would start to indiscriminately restrict our citizens' freedoms and weaken privacy in the European Union, preemptively and under any pretext, no matter how noble," Tali emphasized. He added that many countries are critical of the initiative and expressed pleasure that the presidency decided at the last minute to remove the draft regulation from the agenda of the European Union's Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on October 14 and to effectively pause it. However, he stressed that if the draft were to reappear on the agenda in its current form, Estonia would vote against it.

The government's position on the draft regulation was presented to the European Union Affairs Committee by Minister of the Interior Igor Taro. The committee unanimously decided to support the government's position.