A Majority of European Lawmakers Voted Against Letting Big Tech Read Our Messages. They're Going to Anyway.

The European Parliament has voted to extend legislation allowing tech companies to voluntarily scan users' private messages for child sexual abuse material, despite a majority of lawmakers voting against the proposal.

The ruling reinstates permissions for firms including Meta, Google, and Microsoft to scan private text, email, and social media messages through a bill nicknamed "Chat Control" by critics. End-to-end encrypted chats, such as those on WhatsApp and Signal, remain exempt.