EU lawmakers revisit Chat Control rules: what does it mean for crypto?

EU lawmakers have reopened a vote on extending the bloc’s temporary “chat control” framework, setting up a decision that could allow online platforms to continue scanning private messages for child sexual abuse material until 2028.

According to Euronews, the European Parliament approved a rarely used urgent procedure on Tuesday that schedules a fresh vote for Thursday after the legal framework expired in early April. If approved, the extension would continue the temporary ePrivacy derogation while negotiations on a permanent law continue.

The procedural move passed by a narrow margin, with 331 lawmakers voting in favour, 304 against, and 11 abstaining. Pirate Party Member of the European Parliament Markéta Gregorová said the decision revived a proposal that Parliament had already rejected earlier this year and argued that using the urgent procedure to revisit it was unprecedented.

A rejection or amendment now requires an absolute majority of 361 votes, Gregorová said, making Thursday’s vote a higher hurdle for opponents. Parliament had previously voted against a temporary extension in March after proposed amendments narrowed the scope of message scanning.

Political divide returns to Parliament

According to Euronews, the proposal returned after the European People’s Party, the Parliament’s largest political group, backed another attempt to extend the rules. The report added that party leader Manfred Weber had been looking for a way to advance the measure without the amendments that contributed to its earlier rejection.

Last month, EU member states separately agreed to restore an interim version of the framework that would allow service providers to detect, report, and remove child sexual abuse material until 2028.

Since the previous legal basis expired in April, messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, have been able to continue such detection efforts voluntarily instead of under the temporary EU framework.

If lawmakers ultimately reinstate the framework, Web3 projects offering wallet-based messaging or decentralized social features may have to introduce content monitoring systems or disable those services for users in the European Union to comply with the rules. 

Some industry participants fear similar legal reasoning could eventually be applied to blockchain transaction data and smart contract infrastructure.

Crypto industry has raised concerns

Away from Parliament, the proposal has also drawn criticism from parts of the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector over its potential impact on encrypted communications and digital asset security.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has previously argued that introducing systemic backdoors into encrypted communications weakens security for everyone rather than improving it. He also questioned leaked reports suggesting some government officials sought exemptions from the legislation, saying such proposals raised concerns about the law’s consistency.

Separately, a policy paper published by the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) focused on client-side scanning, a system that checks messages, images, and files on a device before encryption takes place.

INATBA warned that integrating such scanning tools into operating systems or applications could create attractive targets for attackers seeking access to crypto wallet seed phrases, session keys or Multi-Party Computation shares. The paper also said mandatory scanning components could expose open-source wallet developers and decentralized application builders to additional legal and security liabilities if vulnerabilities emerge.

The association further argued that stricter compliance requirements could discourage privacy technology development in Europe, including work on zero-knowledge proof systems, while prompting developers to relocate projects outside the region.