Europe's Moral Crusader Lays Down the Law on Encryption

"Big Sister is Watching You", it warned in big white letters, written behind a smiling photograph of Ylva Johansson, the EU commissioner in charge of home affairs. Within the bureaucratic confines of Brussels, it's rare for a politician to evoke enough anger to feature on a meme--let alone be labeled as the modern incarnation of author George Orwell's Big Brother by her colleagues. But Johansson has become a divisive figure in Europe. The Swedish politician has positioned herself in the midst of a vitriolic debate over online child sexual abuse material (CSAM), one that pits individual privacy against the safety of vulnerable young people. The EU Home Affairs Commissioner is the architect of a deeply controversial new bill that proposes ways to force tech companies, including those with encrypted platforms, to scan their users' private messages in an attempt to wipe both CSAM and grooming attempts off the internet.