>"Half of referrals for child sexual abuse material could be falling under the radar after changes to EU e-privacy directive" The children’s charity NSPCC has called on Facebook to resume a programme that scanned private messages for indications of child abuse, with new data suggesting that almost half of referrals for child sexual abuse material are now falling below the radar. Recent changes to the European commission’s e-privacy directive, which are being finalised, require messaging services to follow strict new restrictions on the privacy of message data. Facebook blamed that directive for shutting down the child protection operation, but the children’s charity says Facebook has gone too far in reading the law as banning it entirely.

Half of referrals for child sexual abuse material could be falling under the radar after changes to EU e-privacy directive [@AlexCPoon](/user/profile/AlexCPoon)

“The US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has released data showing a 46% fall in referrals for child sexual abuse material coming from the EU in the first three weeks since Facebook turned off scanning. In the UK, which is no longer covered by the directive, Facebook continues to operate its scanning programme, as it does in the rest of the world.”

"In 2019, Mark Zuckerberg announced a pivot to privacy for Facebook, with a plan to integrate the company’s messaging services (Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp) and encrypt the contents. When the rest of the industry has arrived at the conclusion that scanning is permissible, and recognised that the immediate impacts of stopping it are considerable, it feels highly improbable that Facebook’s alternative reading isn’t directly related to where they want to go with end-to-end encryption, Burrows said" Why must they be pressured? This should be done automatically.