Garda Commissioner joins calls for social media companies to do more to protect the public from crimes
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Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has joined police bosses from across Europe in calling on social media companies to establish a technical means to identify child sexual abuse and other serious crimes on encrypted communications they provide.
The European Police Chiefs issued a declaration saying they are “deeply concerned” that end-to-end encryption was being expanded without major tech companies retaining the ability to ensure their services were not being used for the most serious of crimes, including those against children.
The police chiefs also said the social media companies would not be able to respond to a lawful warrant seeking access to the encrypted communications of suspected criminals as part of investigations into child sexual abuse.
The association — which includes EU and other European countries — said these concerns also applied to the investigation of terrorism, murder, human trafficking, drugs smuggling and economic crime.
The declaration comes as Meta introduced encrypted messaging as a default across all personal chats and calls on Messenger and Facebook, as it announced last December.
In a statement, Garda HQ confirmed the commissioner was a signatory to the declaration.
It said the European Police Chiefs recognised that law enforcement and the technology industry had a “shared duty” to keep the public safe.
“The joint declaration notes two key elements as being crucial to supporting online safety: The ability of technology companies to provide for ‘lawful access’ and the ability of technology companies proactively to identify illegal and harmful activity on their platforms,” the statement said.
It said while the commissioner noted the value of encryption as part of cyber security, that a “balance must be struck” between security and public safety.
“The Garda Commissioner is on public record as stating the need for appropriate legal mechanisms in order to provide for lawful access to such encrypted devices,” it said.
In its statement, the European Police Chiefs said companies currently have the ability to alert the proper authorities — with the result that “many thousands” of children have been safeguarded, and perpetrators arrested and brought to justice.
“We are, therefore, deeply concerned that end-to-end encryption is being rolled out in a way that will undermine both of these capabilities," it said.
"Companies will not be able to respond effectively to a lawful authority. Nor will they be able to identify or report illegal activity on their platforms. As a result, we will simply not be able to keep the public safe.
The current voluntary mechanism used by tech companies for non-encrypted communications is facilitated by the continuation of a temporary exception to EU privacy regulations, which was recently extended to April 2026.
Digital rights groups and tech companies are opposed to any breach of encrypted communications not only on privacy grounds but also because they claim it will undermine encryption more generally and be abused by democratic governments and, more seriously, authoritarian regimes.
European children’s rights groups — including the ISPCC and Cari in Ireland — have long-called for legal powers to be made available to allow the scanning and removal of online child sex abuse material, citing a growing problem.