The sixth EU trilogue on Chat Control 2.0 opens today, and the central dispute is sharper than ever. Negotiators are clashing over a mass-scanning plan that the Council's own lawyers reportedly warned would likely be struck down in court. For anyone who relies on private messaging, the outcome could shape how Chat Control 2.0 encrypted messages are treated across the European Union.

The source article provides limited detail, so this post sticks to what has been reported and explains why it matters.

What the Sixth Trilogue Is Deciding

A trilogue is a negotiation between the European Parliament, the Council of the EU, and the European Commission, held to reconcile their positions on a draft law. This is the sixth round on Chat Control 2.0, which signals how hard it has been to find common ground.

According to the report, talks center on whether "search plans" can target parts of a messaging service, rather than individual suspects. In practical terms, that means a provider could be directed to scan a segment of its service, such as certain features or groups of users, instead of investigators pointing to specific people they suspect of wrongdoing.

That distinction matters. Suspect-based measures are tied to individual evidence. Scanning a portion of a service touches many people who are not suspected of anything, which is why critics describe the approach as mass scanning.

Why the Council's Own Lawyers Say It Is Unlawful

The most striking element of this round is the legal warning. The report says the Council's own lawyers cautioned that the plan would likely be struck down in court. That is unusual: it means the body pushing the approach has been told by its own legal advisers that it may not survive judicial review.

The article's summary does not spell out the full legal reasoning, so we will not speculate on the specific rulings or provisions involved. What can be said is that indiscriminate scanning of private communications raises well-known questions under EU fundamental rights protections, particularly around privacy and proportionality. A law that is adopted and later annulled would leave providers and users in legal limbo.

The current legal state of play is also more nuanced than the trilogue alone suggests. The EU has an interim arrangement that allows voluntary scanning by platforms. Our coverage of the Council's adoption of the derogation on July 23 explains how that temporary exemption was kept alive, and the trilogue is a separate track aimed at longer-term rules.

How Mass-Scanning Threatens End-to-End Encryption

End-to-end encryption means only the sender and recipient can read a message. The provider in the middle cannot see the content. That design is what protects journalists, activists, businesses, and ordinary families from interception.

Scanning content at scale creates a tension with that design. To check messages for prohibited material, either the provider must be able to read them, or scanning must happen on the user's device before encryption. Security experts have long argued that either route weakens the protection encryption is meant to provide. Once a scanning mechanism exists, it can be misused, hacked, or expanded beyond its original purpose.

The trilogue has also been politically charged. Our earlier report on how a Chat Control vote sparked hacker retaliation on French officials shows how heated the debate has become, though the source article for today's talks does not connect the two.

It is worth noting that some coverage has said Chat Control 2.0 will not include scanning of encrypted messages. The reported dispute over "search plans" is exactly why readers should watch the final text closely: the wording of any targeting mechanism will determine whether encrypted services are affected in practice.

What This Means For You

Nothing changes for your messaging apps today. A trilogue is a negotiation, not a law, and any agreement would still need formal approval before taking effect.

Still, the direction of travel matters. If a search-plan mechanism is adopted, providers of messaging services could face orders that affect how they handle private communications. Whether that reaches encrypted chats depends on the final legal text and, given the Council lawyers' warning, possibly on future court challenges.

What Users Can Realistically Do Now

  • Follow the trilogue. Watch for statements from the Parliament, the Council, and digital rights groups after each round.
  • Review your messaging apps. Check whether the apps you use offer end-to-end encryption by default, and whether it covers group chats and backups.
  • Keep apps updated. Security updates protect against ordinary threats while the policy debate continues.
  • Understand the interim rules. Voluntary scanning is currently permitted under a temporary framework. Our explainers on the extension of the interim rules until April 2028 and the scanning rule extension to 2028 lay out the current legal position.

The Bottom Line

The sixth trilogue puts a difficult question in front of EU lawmakers: can a scanning approach that their own lawyers doubt be defended in court really become law? The answer will determine how Chat Control 2.0 encrypted messages are handled for millions of people. Follow the negotiations, check how your own messaging apps protect your conversations, and use the linked coverage above to keep track of where the rules stand today.