As the European Union was preparing to impose widespread monitoring of private communications through the ChatControl project, Germany stood up as the last line of defense. Its refusal prevented the adoption of a text that would have turned every European phone into a tool for permanent surveillance.
Germany, the last bastion of privacy for Europeans
At school, we study different periods in history when governments managed to justify restricting fundamental freedoms for several years, even decades. Naively, we might think that those days are over and that, with our modern democracies, such a scenario could never happen again.
However, over time, the concessions made and the emergence of new technologies (computers, the Internet, artificial intelligence, digital currencies) could allow coercion and mass surveillance to gradually take hold, without the population concerned really realizing it.
It is thanks to Germany that we have been able to avoid the approval of the European CSAR regulation, better known as Chat Control.
In order for this text to be adopted, it would have had to be approved by representatives of countries representing more than 65% of the European Union’s population. Germany, being the most populous country in the EU with over 80 million inhabitants, therefore held a decisive position.
However, supporters of the regulation have not (yet) given up. This project has already been presented twice in the past and will probably be resubmitted in a different form, less aggressive in appearance, but paving the way for even more abuses and data leaks.
In response to the postponement of Chat Control, Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, expressed his relief while denouncing the support given to the text by France, notably by Bruno Retailleau and Laurent Nuñez.
🇪🇺 Telegram sent this message to all its users in France regarding Chat Control. People must know the names of those who try to steal their freedoms:
Today, the European Union nearly banned your right to privacy. It was set to vote on a law that would force apps to scan every…
— Pavel Durov (@durov) October 14, 2025
Today, the European Union almost banned your right to privacy. It was set to vote on a law that would force apps to scan every private message, turning everyone’s phone into a surveillance tool.
France was one of the main drivers behind this authoritarian law. Interior Ministers Bruno Retailleau (former) and Laurent Nuñez (current) supported it.
Last March, they stated that the police should be able to access the private messages of French citizens.
The Republicans and Macron’s Renaissance group voted in favor of this measure.
As a reminder, Pavel Durov was arrested in August 2024, then released on bail and placed under judicial supervision. In December, he appeared for the first time before a judge in Paris to answer 12 charges related to illegal activities on Telegram. He denies any direct responsibility and defends the compliance of his platform, which has since strengthened its reporting and moderation tools.
What is ChatControl? What would be its impact?
ChatControl is a proposed European regulation, also known as CSAR (Child Sexual Abuse Regulation), which aims to require messaging services such as WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram to automatically analyze private messages, images, videos, and links exchanged by their users before they are sent, and to block them if the algorithm detects prohibited content.
The stated objective is to combat the dissemination of child pornography. However, the proposed mechanism would involve mass surveillance of private communications, including those protected by encryption.
In practical terms, platforms would have to deploy algorithms capable of scanning the content of messages before they are sent. This would amount to installing an automated inspection system on all phones and applications in Europe, effectively removing the security of end-to-end encryption.
The consequences of such a system would be significant:
- Invasion of privacy, as no message would be truly confidential;
- Creation of false positives, as sending a photo of your child to their grandparents could alert the authorities;
- Risk of political and security abuses: such a tool could be used for censorship and to target journalists, political opponents, or protected professions;
- Weakening of digital security: the creation of backdoors would make communications vulnerable to hackers and hostile states.
- Economic impact: this law would lead to a loss of confidence and prompt the departure of services such as Signal and other companies concerned with data protection from the European market.
Under the pretext of protecting children from predators, ChatControl would undermine the fundamental right to privacy and the security of digital communications for all European citizens.
