The European Commission’s legislative proposal aimed at combating sexual abuse of children on the Internet will fundamentally change the Internet, EU Data Protection Commissioner Wojciech Vivivrowski said, according to EUobserver, as cited by Rador Radio Romania.

Child Sexual Abuse Material or CSAM Bill [sic! sintagma respectivă face obiectul proiectului de lege și e sinonimă cu „pornografie infantilă” – n.trad.]has been heavily criticized by privacy advocates.

They say the project undermines the effectiveness of encryption, unwittingly puts children at even greater risk of exploitation and creates a state of mass espionage in which every citizen is also a suspect.

But Wiewiórowski said Monday that in its current form, the project would also “fundamentally change the Internet and digital communications as we know them now.”

Wiewiórowski is the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), an independent institution based in Brussels responsible for ensuring that EU institutions and bodies respect the right to privacy and the protection of citizens’ data.

At a seminar organized by the EDPS in the European Parliament, Vyvorovskii said that the Commission’s proposal also raises other issues.

“I’m concerned that this calls into question the fundamentals [dreptului la intimitate într-o societate democratică – n.a.]which, once they are undermined, leads to a radical transformation from which there may be no way back,” he stated.

The 52-year-old Wivierowski also compared it to the Polish police state in which he himself lived as a child.

On the other hand, other voices say that the project against CSAM will not even help fight against child pornography.

Among them is Arda Gerkens, the head of an institution in the Netherlands that deals with the fight against online content related to terrorism and child pornography.

“Despite the illegality, a significant proportion of the material we uncover is not the result of sexual abuse,” she said at the same EDPS workshop.

Instead, she said, the standard form of child pornography can most often be found on image hosting sites used to distribute material on the dark web.

She also stated that approximately 90% of cases of physical violence are committed by people known to the victims.

“Scanning private messages will clearly indicate problematic situations. But this is not a solution to combating sexual violence against children,” she said, clarifying that images of violence that have become public are often the result of hacking private accounts.

A better solution, Gerkens says, would be to invest more in existing police mechanisms and strengthen cooperation between EU states.

Attacks on a person

The commission says the proposal it is presenting in May 2022 targets online hosting and service providers.

This will require companies like Signal and WhatsApp to detect, report and remove child pornography from their services. It also provides for the creation of a new independent EU center to help member states prevent crime.

But the discussion around the project became so fierce that in some cases it reached personal aspects.

This month, Ylva Johansson, EU Commissioner for Combating Child Pornography [de fapt comisarul de interne – n.trad.]accused, without naming names, that she was attacked [verbale] misogynistic and sexist privacy advocates.

“The violence of their language can undermine their attempts to present themselves as the reasonable side in this debate,” she said.

On Wednesday, she will take part in a debate with MEPs from the civil liberties committee. Although it has not yet been confirmed, the committee is expected to vote on the draft law on November 13, according to EUobserver, as cited by Rador Radio Romania.