The National Assembly rejected amendments that would have introduced backdoors into encrypted messaging apps to allow law enforcement to access their content. They will remain confidential.
It was a very controversial project, but it will ultimately not see the light of day. On the night of March 20-21, 2025, the National Assembly rejected the amendments aimed at reinstate an article of the proposed law against drug trafficking. Defended by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, he wanted to establish a system where law enforcement could access the contents of encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and others as part of the fight against serious crime. The entities behind the services in question would have had no choice but to comply. Remember that the messaging services mentioned operate on the principle of end-to-end encryption. This means that no one other than the participants in a conversation can access its content, even if it is intercepted by a third party. The key to decoding messages is held only by the senders and recipients.
There will be no backdoor in encrypted messaging applications in France
The proposal had provoked an outcry from defenders of the right to privacy. The messaging services themselves, of course, but also the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) and the association La Quadrature du Net. All opponents claimed that it would be technically impossible to create a backdoor accessible only to the authorities. It would inevitably be exploitable by malicious people in the end.
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The National Assembly's Law Commission, which examines these laws before they are presented to the Chamber, had voted to delete the article in question. This did not prevent its supporters from returning to the charge, but it is now official: it was rejected by a wide margin since out of 143 voters, only 24 were in favor. For the record, the automatic vote counting system fell broke down just before this point, forcing the deputies to speak one by one at the microphone.
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