Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has criticized the EU’s proposed Chat Control regulation, cautioning that mandatory scanning of private messages could lead to serious security vulnerabilities.
The regulation, known as Chat Control, would require messaging platforms—including encrypted ones—to scan all user content for indications of child exploitation.
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Backlash Against EU Chat Control Regulation
Buterin cautioned that such approaches, while justified as child protection, would undermine digital privacy. He argued that any policy aiming to enhance safety by compromising individual security achieves the reverse effect.
“You cannot make society secure by making people insecure. We all deserve privacy and security, without inevitably hackable backdoors, for our private communications,” Buterin stated.
Instead, Buterin emphasized that effective security reforms should concentrate on “common-sense policing” rather than blanket surveillance of digital communications.
He pointed out that mandatory data collection can often introduce new vulnerabilities, as stored surveillance data becomes attractive targets for hackers.
“There are many opportunities to improve safety today, mostly around common-sense policing improvements, not carelessly releasing repeat offenders, etc. Meanwhile, intercepted digital messages are a security vulnerability, and there are many easy-to-find stories where mandatory wiretap data collected by one government gets hacked by other governments,” Buterin remarked.
The Ethereum co-founder also highlighted that citizens should enjoy the same online privacy as they do in face-to-face interactions or cash transactions.
“We need our physical environments to be secure and we need our digital environments to be secure,” he asserted.
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The Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse (CSAR) builds on previous monitoring systems employed by major tech companies for unencrypted data.
Concerns regarding the regulation have intensified after a leaked report from 2024. The document revealed that several interior ministers sought exemptions for intelligence agencies, police, and military personnel.
In light of this, Buterin and privacy advocates argue that these exceptions reveal the hypocrisy of lawmakers enforcing surveillance they would not accept for themselves.
Pratam Rao, co-founder of blockchain security firm QuillAudits, echoed this sentiment, stating that “any surveillance system lawmakers won’t subject themselves to is automatically tyrannical.”
“They’re admitting these systems are dangerous to privacy and democracy. They just don’t think citizens deserve the same protections they do,” Rao posted on X.
Consequently, Buterin has called on individuals across the European Union to oppose the controversial proposal. Notably, resistance to the proposal has surged on the social media platform X.
Data from the advocacy group FightChatControl.eu indicates that only seven EU member states—including Austria, Finland, and the Netherlands—have officially rejected the plan.
In contrast, 12 nations, including France, Spain, and Denmark, have expressed support for the contentious regulation, while several key countries, such as Germany and Italy, remain undecided.
