Legal Expiry Forces Private Policing

When a temporary legal carve-out for automated content scans lapses, platforms and governments enter a coordination limbo: companies may keep scanning voluntarily while regulators strip or reframe legal authority, shifting enforcement from public law to corporate policy. That move concentrates discretion inside a few firms and creates unclear accountability for intrusive surveillance of private messages. — This raises a broader governance question: does legislative failure to formalize surveillance rules outsource policing powers to private firms and erode democratic oversight?