BRUSSELS — A website set up by an unknown Dane over the course of one weekend in August is giving a massive headache to those trying to pass a European bill aimed at stopping child sexual abuse material from spreading online.

The website, called Fight Chat Control, was set up by Joachim, a 30-year-old software engineer living in Aalborg, Denmark. He made it after learning of a new attempt to approve a European Union proposal to fight child sexual abuse material (CSAM) — a bill seen by privacy activists as breaking encryption and leading to mass surveillance.

The site lets visitors compile a mass email warning about the bill and send it to national government officials, members of the European Parliament and others with ease. Since launching, it has broken the inboxes of MEPs and caused a stir in Brussels’ corridors of power. 

“We are getting hundreds per day about it,” said Evin Incir, a Swedish Socialists and Democrats MEP, of the email deluge.

Three diplomats at national permanent representation offices said they too have received a large number of emails. 

Joachim’s website has stoked up an already red-hot debate around the CSAM proposal, which would give police the power to force companies like WhatsApp and Signal to scan their services for the illegal content. Critics fear the bill would enable online state surveillance.

Elon Musk’s X said Monday that the bill could enable “government instituted mass surveillance,” and encrypted chat app Signal said last weekend it would pull out of Europe if the bill passed. Meta’s WhatsApp also came out against Denmark’s proposal — backing Europe’s privacy groups, which have railed against the bill ever since its conception.

EU countries are split into two camps. One side broadly backs the bill’s measures as a way to stop predators from sharing illegal content of children; the other says it would create a surveillance state and be ineffective.

Denmark proposed a new version on its first day holding the presidency of the Council of the EU in July. Danish diplomats hope to get an agreement at a meeting of ministers in Luxembourg next week, and for that, the proposal needs to get past EU ambassadors on Wednesday.

Millions of emails

Joachim himself declined to provide his last name or workplace because his employer does not want to be associated with the campaign. POLITICO has verified his identity. Joachim said his employer has no commercial interest in the legislation, and he alone paid the costs associated with running the website.

Joachim’s mass email campaign is unconventional as a lobbying tool, differing from the more wonky approach usually taken in Brussels. But the website’s impact has been undeniable.

The Polish government responded directly to the campaign in a statement last month, reassuring Poles it’s against mass scanning of messages. A Danish petition, pushed by the Fight Chat Control campaign, now has more than 50,000 signatures, meaning it can be discussed in parliament. Irish national lawmakers asked questions in parliament in September about “Chat Control,” the name for the legislation adopted by its critics and used by Joachim.

As of early October, nearly 2.5 million people had visited his website, Joachim said, with most coming from within the EU. The emails are sent from visitors’ own email clients, meaning Joachim doesn’t know how many have been sent, but he estimated that it has triggered several million emails.

The campaign has irked some recipients. “In terms of dialog within a democracy, this is not a dialog,” said Lena Düpont, a German member of the European People’s Party group and its home affairs spokesperson, of the mass emails.

Joachim’s campaign is blocking more traditional lobbyists and campaigners, too, they said. Mieke Schuurman, director at child rights group Eurochild, said the group’s messages are no longer reaching policymakers, who “increasingly respond with automated replies.” 

Joachim, who said he has not paid to promote the site, said it is “regrettable” that child rights campaigners’ emails have received automated responses. But the flood of emails sent by his website visitors is “a quite clear indication that people really care about this … I would actually argue this is as democratic as it gets,” he said.

Capitals on edge

The European Commission presented its original proposal on CSAM in 2022 as an effort to stem the spread of the illegal content. Since then, police authorities have warned the problem has gotten worse, in part because platforms have increasingly enabled privacy technologies and encrypted messaging across some of the most popular services. The rise of artificial intelligence-generated content has added to the problem, authorities have warned.

National governments are attempting — for the fifth time, at least — to hash out a compromise on the EU proposal. Countries first need to adopt their own position before negotiations with the European Parliament can take place. 

One EU diplomat said some EU member countries are now more hesitant to support Denmark’s proposal, at least in part because of the campaign: “There is a clear link.”

Ella Jakubowska, head of policy at digital rights group EDRi, said “This campaign seems to have raised the topic high up the agenda in member states where there was previously little to no public debate.”

But Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard, one of the loudest proponents of tough measures to get child abuse material off online platforms, said in a statement that his proposal is far more balanced than the Commission’s original version and would mean that scanning would only happen as a last resort.

“This has nothing to do with ‘chat control,’ as the sponsors of the citizens’ initiative claim,” he said.