EU Council approves Chat Control mandate pressuring companies to voluntarily scan messages. Firms face rewards or penalties based on scanning compliance. Scanning targets both encrypted and open communications. Age verification eliminates anonymous internet use. Half of German scanning alerts are false positives on legal content. Private talks enter police databases without warrants. Netherlands, Poland, Czechs vote against – Italy abstains. Project revives after public backlash via Danish mediation. Breyer calls it privatized mass surveillance infrastructure. Tech leaders like Vavra and Hansson oppose as digital authoritarianism. Youth under 17 risk exclusion from platforms without biometrics. Algorithms from foreign black boxes judge private photos. No true compromise – backdoor scanning normalized. Negotiations continue to 2026 deadline.