Chat Control: EU Council vote is a Green Light for Indiscriminate Mass Surveillance and the End of Right to Communicate Anonymously
Contrary to headlines suggesting the EU has “backed away” from Chat Control, the negotiating mandate endorsed today by EU ambassadors in a close split vote paves the way for a permanent infrastructure of mass surveillance.
While the Council removed the obligation for scanning, the agreed text creates a toxic legal framework that incentivizes US tech giants to scan private communications indiscriminately, introduces mandatory age checks for all internet users, and threatens to exclude teenagers from digital life.
The article is non-paywalled, freely readable on the link --^
https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/reality-check-eu-council-chat-control-vote-is-not-a-retreat-but-a-green-light-for-indiscriminate-mass-surveillance-and-the-end-of-right-to-communicate-anonymously/Open linkView original on lemmy.ml
11 replies
Remember that the Council is meant to protect and enable trade. They only care about citizens for submitting them to exploitation.
If you discuss "the EU" you have to distinguish between Council and Parliament. The Council has no obligation to act according to the Parliament's wishes. They are not a democracy.
Thanks for your comment. I'm still only learning how legislation in the EU works. However, so far I haven't been able to confirm what you're saying. Could you help if you know? (I assume not only me, but possibly other readers, too)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_the_European_Union
Here it doesn't say (almost) anything about "trade". Admittedly I've only read 2-3 pages and then used Ctrl+F to search on the rest of the page though.. Is it a de-facto split between the legislative powers of the Council and the Parliament? Where to read about it?
Ok, it seems there is little doubt that EU chat control will be implemented. The question then becomes: How can individuals opt out of this? What existing technical solutions are already available, and what needs to be newly developed?
Personally, I believe there's a chance for stopping this. EU is not an authoritarian state. I wouldn't give up too early -- instead would rather fight and provide public pressure for the direction of the law that supports mine and everybody's freedom.
This is like the 15th time they’ve tried to implement this. The fact that it came up, they were told his is a bad idea, it was shot down, and they STILL want to keep pushing and keep pushing it; what it really aught to tell you is that it’s time to re-evaluate your diagnosis of the EU and its tendencies.
Authoritarianism is on the rise everywhere, because opportunists see vectors to power available everywhere in technology, now that it has firmly propagated among everyday people. They can spread lies and misinformation, and a huge swath of people just fucking buy it. Consent can be manufactured at the drop of a hat.
They can’t allow dissenting opinions or pesky truth tellers to get in the way of their petrofortunes, of their pedo rings, their yachts, their security blankets.
...yet. At this point I wish some aliens had mercy on us and nuked certain parliaments & sniped billinaires on this planet simultaneously, giving us a chance to try & start over.
why would we need aliens to do that? people reclaimed their "chance to try & start over" many times before.
Because hoping for aliens to do it is abstract enough that it doesn't get someone in trouble for "inciting violence" :p
This comment made me double check if I hadn't accidentally opened Reddit
Use free software that doesn't implement backdoors
Good luck passing that through the Parliament. (Second paragraph of the section about CC 2.0)