The Commission has been accused of "maladministration" for refusing to release documents.
ADVERTISEMENTThe European Commission wrongly refused a request for document disclosure related to its Child Sexual Abuse law which was in the public interest, the European Ombudsman has found in a report.
The ombudsman - which oversees the proper administration of EU institutions – investigated on Tuesday the Commission’s refusal to disclose policy papers and minutes of meetings with Thorn, a child protection NGO, around the proposal on rules to combat Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).
Thorn, a non-governmental organisation founded in 2012 by US actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, aims to develop technologies to prevent online child sexual exploitation, grooming, and the distribution of child sexual imagery.
The Commission denied the outlet Follow the Money access to the documents, arguing that releasing them “would undermine the commercial interests of the organisation concerned", triggering a complaint to the Ombudsman.
The outlet had reportedthat “Thorn has used lobby meetings with the Commission and the European Parliament to push for the adoption of its products in Europe, blurring the boundaries between its public advocacy and private interest.”
Kutcher and CEO Julie Cordua held several meetings with EU officials from 2020 to 2023 - before the former stepped down from his role - including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson, and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
The meetings discussed the Commission's proposal on CSAM, which would require social media platforms and messaging apps to scan user conversations for child exploitation content, aligning with Thorn’s technology offerings.
The Ombudsman has now determined that withholding the documents constituted “maladministration”. The Commission's argument that it was protecting Thorn’s financial interests was deemed inadmissible, especially since some documents had already been leaked to the press or shared with national authorities.
The Ombudsman further concluded that Thorn had indeed influenced the legislative process of the CSAM regulation. “It is clear, for example, from the Commission’s impact assessment that the input provided by Thorn significantly informed the Commission’s decision-making. The public interest in disclosure is thus self-evident.”
Discussions on the CSAM regulation are currently stalled in the Council of the European Union after the Belgian presidency failed to garner sufficient support for an approach that would safeguard online privacy while ensuring the protection of children, as previously reported by Euronews here.
The matter is now in the hands of the Hungarian presidency. A source from the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU told Euronews that the discussions would not resume until October.
