MAP Forum

Support for the European Union’s contentious Chat Control legislation—designed to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM)—remains strong, yet a rising chorus of opposition now threatens to complicate its path to adoption.

The proposed regulation, formally known as the Danish version of the CSAM scanning law, mandates all messaging platforms to screen user content, including encrypted messages, for illegal material. If passed, implementation could begin as early as October 2025. However, the bill has drawn mounting criticism for jeopardising digital privacy and weakening encryption, a core pillar of secure communications.

Aspire6 wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 11:03 pm This bill is aimed at "stopping" child pornography and "keeping kids safe" but it will only make their situation worse. They will not ban encryption nor be able to stop people communicating privately. Large companies will comply but smaller, self-hosted and decentralized places will tell them to fuck off, as they should. Europe will soon complain how the problem is "out of control" a year or two after it goes in, assuming it unfortunately passes. That's when you can point and laugh.

I already use services that would tell them to fuck off and continue to support hosts who run their own decentralized servers elsewhere.

Not Forever wrote: Thu Sep 04, 2025 12:32 am [A]fter having required scans of chats, facial scans, and documents on every service with even a bit of popularity, they’ll ask for Tor to be shut down and for Windows operating systems to be monitored, with integrated AI to check whether you’re using it “correctly.”

BLueRibbon wrote: Thu Sep 04, 2025 12:29 pmThis is really as much of a 'fuck you' to non-MAPs as it is to MAPs.

Officerkrupke wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 10:53 pm Anti-pedophilia is a trojan horse for authoritarianism and censorship.

SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio man nearly lost his job after online court records mistakenly indicated he was guilty of a child sex crime, despite being found innocent by the court.

The error was corrected after media intervention. The man, whose identity is withheld due to his acquittal, went to trial last week, where a jury found him not guilty.

A New Hampshire man is suing two local publications for allegedly publishing his photo erroneously alongside a story about a man with a similar name who pleaded guilty to sexual crimes against children.

A photo of Chad William Lawlor was published along with a story about Chad David Lawlor, according to the defamation lawsuit filed in Hillsborough Superior Court last month. Chad David Lawlor pleaded guilty to four federal counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March of 2024, according to federal prosecutors.

When the New Hampshire Union Leader and WMUR, which is owned by Hearst, reported on Chad D. Lawlor’s sentencing, both allegedly used an image of Chad W. Lawlor. Chad W. Lawlor, himself a victim of child sexual abuse, is claiming he suffered “substantial emotional and psychological harm,” the lawsuit alleges.

After members of the community saw the articles, the lawsuit alleges, “Chad soon began to notice people looking at him and talking about him in public.”

The complaint goes on to allege that he was harassed by neighbors because they thought he was a convicted sex offender. His landlord didn’t renew his lease due to the mix-up, the complaint alleges, and he “has been unable to find steady employment or housing since the publication of this article.”

His sister also “refuses to speak to him despite his pleas of innocence,” the complaint said. Chad W. Lawlor was threatened with violence by a biker gang in the parking lot of a Cumberland Farms, the lawsuit said, and his car “has been vandalized based on the mistaken belief” that he is a sex offender.