In an open letter to Interior Minister Gerhard Karner and Secretary of State for Digitization Florian Tursky (both ÖVP), some 20 Austrian professors criticize the “chat control” the EU is currently debating. The purpose of monitoring messaging services for no reason is to combat terrorism or the spread of depictions of abuse. “This breakthrough cannot be implemented safely and effectively,” was the experts’ stark summary.
“Indeed, criminals who know they are exchanging criminal material, such as child pornography or terrorist material, will immediately avoid it,” warned René Mayrhofer of Johannes Kepler University (JKU) about the comprehensive monitoring of messaging services in the Ö1 newspaper Morning on Thursday. In addition to Mayrhofer, professors from Linz, Graz, Vienna and St. Pölten from the areas of security, artificial intelligence and law signed the letter.
According to the letter, no further development of the corresponding technologies is currently foreseeable that would technically allow such an implementation. “This legislative initiative therefore misses the mark, is socio-politically dangerous and would permanently undermine the security of our communication channels for the majority of the population.” Mayrhofer is concerned that individual states or the EU will determine what material is considered problematic: “We don’t need to go that far, there are EU states that have issues with homosexuality. There are states that are already more active against opposition politics. Where does the opposition end? classification of what is problematic material?”
If there is extensive surveillance of the various communication channels, there are only two options, Mayrhofer emphasized to Ö1: “If they bow down, the general public will be subject. They will be monitored, criminals will not, from our point of view. If the messenger services, they are simply not available in the EU anymore, so there will be no signal and no more WhatsApp here.” The Interior Ministry told Ö1 that the EU Commission’s plans to monitor large-scale messaging services are critical.
Austrian scientists are not alone in this. As The Standard reported on Wednesday, hundreds of international experts also criticized the EU Commission’s plans in a similar letter. “We urgently warn (…) against the continuation of this or similar projects, as their success is not possible with the current and predictable state of the art, but their potential for damage is considerable”, refers the CSA Academy (Child Sexual Abuse) Open letter. A system that is currently primarily aimed at portraying child abuse could – once established – be used to search any content.
Discussion of monitoring messaging services such as Telegram or Signal flared up again in Austria after the State Security and Intelligence Directorate (DSN) announced the day after the gay pride parade in Vienna that it had thwarted a planned attack. It was fueled last week when Cobra and Staatsschatz seized hundreds of firearms from right-wing extremists and biker gang members in Upper and Lower Austria. Security authorities have been demanding more digital surveillance skills for months. However, this is not about mass surveillance, but about “eliminating individual threats, which undoubtedly exist. The police need adequate powers and competences for this”, emphasized Karner shortly after the parade.