Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Technology
Erin Hale

‘Orwellian’: EU’s push to mass scan private messages on WhatsApp, Signal

Messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal use end-to-end encryption to keep users' communications private [Damien Meyer/AFP]

The European Union is considering controversial proposals to mass scan private communications on encrypted messaging apps for child sex abuse material.

Under the proposed legislation, photos, videos, and URLs sent on popular apps such as WhatsApp and Signal would be scanned by an artificial intelligence-powered algorithm against a government database of known abuse material.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.