Germany will not agree to European Union plans for so-called "chat controls" that would enable authorities to scan messages for illegal content such as child pornography before they are encrypted by apps such as WhatsApp or Signal.
"Arbitrary chat controls ought to be taboo in a democracy," said Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig of the Social Democrats (SPD), the junior partner in the coalition government, on Wednesday.
For three years now, European politicians have been wrangling over proposed legislation to allow pre-encryption message scanning with the aim of combatting crimes such as the distribution of child pornography -- but have been unable to reach a compromise.
EU member state ambassadors are set to discuss the latest proposals on Wednesday evening and, should an agreement be reached, the relevant ministers could vote on legislation as early as next week.
But the stance of the most populous member states, such as Germany, will be decisive and it had been unclear where exactly Berlin stood on the issue -- until now.
"Germany will not agree to such suggestions at EU level," Hubig said.
Even if the ambassadors were to reach an agreement, any legislation would still have to be voted on by the European Parliament, where there is cross-party opposition to the "chat controls."
Messenger service providers and data protection experts have also voiced criticism.
On Wednesday, a conference of independent German data protection watchdogs in Berlin called on the German government to reject the EU plans that they said would circumvent encryption and bring about "an end to the private sphere as we know it."