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End of "Chat Control": EU parliament stops mass surveillance

458 points by amarcheschi

by nickslaughter02

5 subcomments

> Despite today’s victory, further procedural steps by EU governments cannot be completely ruled out. Most of all, the trilogue negotiations on a permanent child protection regulation (Chat Control 2.0) are continuing under severe time pressure. There, too, EU governments continue to insist on their demand for “voluntary” indiscriminate Chat Control.
> Furthermore, the next massive threat to digital civil liberties is already on the agenda: Next up in the ongoing trilogue, lawmakers will negotiate whether messenger and chat services, as well as app stores, will be legally obliged to implement age verification. This would require users to provide ID documents or submit to facial scans, effectively making anonymous communication impossible and severely endangering vulnerable groups such as whistleblowers and persecuted individuals.

by miohtama

4 subcomments

Here is the EPP's plea to get this passed earlier.
They even used a teddy bear image.
https://www.eppgroup.eu/newsroom/epp-urges-support-for-last-...
"Protecting children is not optional," said Lena Düpont MEP, EPP Group spokeswoman on Legal and Home Affairs. "We call on the S&D Group to stop hiding behind excuses and finally take responsibility. We cannot afford a safe haven for child abusers online. Every delay leaves children exposed and offenders unchallenged."
Personally, I feel there must be other privacy-preserving ways to address child abusers than mass surveillance.
Also, for the record, here is the list of parties that lobbied for this for Mrs Düpont, alongside very few privacy-focused organisations. Not sure why Canada or Australia are lobbying for EU laws.
ANNEX: LIST OF ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT
- Access Now
- Australian eSafety Commissioner
- Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer (BRAK)
- Canadian Centre for Child Protection
- cdt - Center for Democracy & Technology
- eco - Association of the Internet Industry
- EDPS
- EDRI
- Facebook
- Fundamental Rights Agency
- Improving the digital environment for children (regrouping several child protection NGOs across the EU and beyond, including Missing Children Europe, Child Focus)
- INHOPE – the International Association of Internet Hotlines
- International Justice Mission Deutschland e.V./ We Protect
- Internet Watch Foundation
- Internet Society
- Match Group
- Microsoft
- Thorn (Ashton Kutcher)
- UNICEF
- UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2020-0258_...

by benced

1 subcomments

> Recently, only 36% of suspicious activity reports from US companies originated from the surveillance of private messages anyway.
I don't have many opinions on this but this sort of lazy logic would make me nervous. 36% is not a small number and that's before the folks doing this activity find out that private message is less patrolled.

by elephanlemon

9 subcomments

I’m confused by
> This means on April 6, 2026, Gmail, LinkedIn, Microsoft and other Big Techs must stop scanning your private messages in the EU
It had already passed and started?

by beej71

0 subcomment

Political engineering angle: "These people will not rest until they are able to read your child's messages."

by _fat_santa

5 subcomments

It seems like an almost never ending hamster wheel of chat control being introduced, voted down, then introduced again in the next session.

by amarcheschi

3 subcomments

I would say "end of chat control, for now"

by YeahThisIsMe

0 subcomment

It's never going to stop. They'll keep trying until they get it because they're sick people.

by schubidubiduba

3 subcomments

Nice to see that democracy can work

by abdelhousni

0 subcomment

Good news

by someguyornotidk

1 subcomments

The fact that they could pull a stunt like this shows that the EU is no democracy. Shame on the politicians who tried to rob people of their rights.

by bradley13

1 subcomments

Thex will try again. And again. It's for the children, don't you know?
The only way to really stop this would be to pass legislation that permanently strengthens privacy rights.

by Freak_NL

2 subcomments

Did that vote pass with a difference of one single vote? Tight squeeze there.

by wewewedxfgdf

2 subcomments

Just rename it to something something save the children something something. Instant approval no matter what is in the bill.

by the_mitsuhiko

2 subcomments

This will come back because too many EU countries want it.

by fcanesin

0 subcomment

To get "End of Chat Control" EU should actually pass laws prohibiting it, this whack a mole will eventually lose.

by ori_b

0 subcomment

Who is going to push a counteroffensive, banning specific types of data from being collected?

by cryptonector

0 subcomment

> The Hard Facts: Why Chat Control Has Failed Spectacularly
The ostensible reasons for mass surveillance fail. That's very interesting.

by shevy-java

0 subcomment

> The controversial mass surveillance of private messages in Europe is coming to an end.
I am having a deja vu. Groundhog Day.
The above should be adjusted. This is not an end; it will continue in another form. Another name. Another proposal. The lobbyists behind this will not give up. They are paid to not give up.
I don't think any of those few should have ANY power of us, The People. That includes both EU commission as well as EU parliament. Yes, I know the EU parliament is heralded now as "our heroes". I don't trust any of them at any moment in time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_corruption_scandal_at_th.... And that's just one known issue. How many more unknown issues are there?
Also, Leyen should go. She is too suspiciously close to a few companies, always promoting things. She did so before her time in the EU too.

by amarant

0 subcomment

I feel like someone ought to dramatise this seemingly endless struggle in a seemingly endless series of movies.
-The Spying Menace
-Attack of the conservatives
-Revenge of the marketing conglomerate
-A new hope
-Chat Control strikes back
-Return of the Pirate Party
Etc,etc.

by _the_inflator

2 subcomments

No, this is the end of the wording for the initiative, nothing else.
We will see many new initiatives, old wine in a new bottle. Any bet that EU diehard bureaucrats will change tune, not the goal. They are going to use the so called salami tactic.
Death of free speech by many cuts, so to say. It is in the left wing DNA. Have a look at German history regarding "Landes-Verfassungsschutz" units. It is disturbing to read this article here: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verfassungsschutz_Nordrhein-We...
And back then already it was the so called center-right party ruled against this left wing initiative - imagine, first thing you do right after WW2 is ramping up a control unit to control freedom of speech.
Please value free speech. Agree to disagree, but remember: those who live by prohibitions will ultimately use this tool against you as well. Consider wisely what is something you dislike personally and simply exercise your right to not listen to certain voices or appeal to prohibition.
Prohibition becomes a tool and everybody knows that people love to use their tools. And since I have a law degree, often times what you plan is not what is finally what courts decide, how they apply the law.
Freedom rights are fundamental.

by whywhywhywhy

1 subcomments

It doesn’t matter they can just keep trying and paying people off until it gets through.
Someone somewhere really really wants this and has the time and resources so it’s an inevitability.

by dethos

1 subcomments

That was a close one. This is getting harder and harder. It is important not to be naive to the point of thinking this is over.

by astrashe2

0 subcomment

Here's a mirror link: http://archive.today/CJlNk

by Havoc

2 subcomments

They’ll keep trying.

by gmuslera

3 subcomments

Its time to start trying to push Chat Control 2.0. With enough money and infinite retries eventually all the bad regulations with a power group behind will end being approved.

by ramon156

1 subcomments

See you next year!

by AJRF

0 subcomment

See you again next week!

by greenavocado

0 subcomment

That margin is really small

by woodpanel

0 subcomment

Never forget:
> We decide something, then put it in the room and wait some time to see what happens. If there is no big shouting and no uprisings, because most do not understand what it is about, then we continue - step by step until there is no turning back. – Jean Claude Juncker, then President of the EU Commission
They will try this again. And again. And again. They will never stop.
They are not your friends.

by rvz

0 subcomment

Until next time.

by fsflover

0 subcomment

Related discussion : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47529646

by cynicalsecurity

0 subcomment

A big W, for now.
Until we meet again.

by Arubis

0 subcomment

Good.
Now let's start preparing for the next one.

by umren

0 subcomment

Chat Control 3.0 will go through

by varispeed

1 subcomments

This is a clear case of a terrorist attack attempt (Chat Control fulfils definition of terrorism fully). Chat Controls would be illegal in Germany.
This is sad that this has gotten this far. If they wanted to pass a law to blow up citizens, do you think European Parliament would seriously consider it? It is exactly the same calibre of idiocy.
I would expect German authorities to issue arrest warrants and properly investigate this.
For context:
If terrorism is defined as using violence or threats to intimidate a population for political or ideological ends, then “Chat Control” qualifies in substance. Violence doesn’t have to leave blood. Psychological and coercive violence is recognised in domestic law (see coercive control offences) and by the WHO. It causes measurable harm to bodies and minds.
The aim is intimidation. The whole purpose is to make people too scared to speak freely. That is intimidation of a population, by design.
It is ideological. The ideology is mass control - keeping people compliant by stripping them of private spaces to think, talk, and dissent.
The only reason it’s not “terrorism” on paper is because states write definitions that exempt themselves. But in plain terms, the act is indistinguishable in effect from terrorism: deliberate fear, coercion, and the destruction of free will.

by Ms-J

1 subcomments

Maybe it is time to make start a prediction market?
Any time a scumbag politician tries this again:
"Mr. Jones, secretary of communications for the state, TTL (Time-to-live) left. 2 Hours? 1 Day? 1 Week?"
It would stop fast.
Anyone want to build this? There is a lot of money being left on the table.

by canticleforllm

0 subcomment

How long until they stage an incident to occur so they can pass CC 1.1? 6 months? 2 years?

by anthk

0 subcomment

Goid news, now stop the age bullshit in CA.

by spwa4

1 subcomments

... again?

by leontloveless

0 subcomment

[dead]

by fdezdaniel

0 subcomment

[dead]

by freehorse

4 subcomments

So, in the end a big majority of the conservative/liberal faction (EPP) voted against, and the vast majority of the social democractic faction (S&D) voted for chat control.
https://howtheyvote.eu/votes/189270
Just pointing this out because yesterday there was the myth around that "chat control is pushed by the conservatives", obscuring the actual political dynamics in the EU about it.

by miroljub

10 subcomments

[flagged]

by sailfast

2 subcomments

“Congrats all we maybe fixed the problem we created in the first place! Let’s celebrate!”
Also - wasn’t this program voluntary? This seems like the height of backslapping. Would have been better if they just sat on their hands and did nothing in the first place.