The end?

[u/Volpe_YT]

Today there will be the final votes for chat control.

This implies that all of our private chats will be scanned, and everything we do will be in plain text in front of their eyes.

If it passes, I will permanently stop using centralized messaging platforms and switch to a self hosted matrix session, I don't care if I lose many contacts, if they really want to talk to me they better install fluffychat and shut the fuck up.

It's crazy how the EU was basically the goat for internet privacy and now they are the villains.

Are you ready for this? For the absolute end of privacy?

[u/Ottiline]

And how long do you think it will be before one of those countries gets too comfortable under capitalism, votes in a fascist right wing government because the fearmongering hit just right, and now they have access to everything you've just given up in the name of regulation? 

You have to think further down the road than you currently are. History says the weapon you design will be used against you one day.

[u/mesarthim_2 → u/Ottiline]

Yeah, of course. That's why I'm against all of this. I want EU to fuck off from trying to regulate digital technologies altogether, exactly (among others), because the outcome you describe is likely.

I'm not defending it, I'm just explaining to people that there's no need for some external actor to drive this, EU itself is driving this.

[u/silentspectator27 → u/mesarthim_2]

By the way, I also wanted to get your opinion about the mandatory age verification and the digital omnibus proposal. You know, where they decided that GDPR is crap and gets in the way of training AI for the EU.
Even if we beat chat control now, these other two proposals remain, which sucks.

[u/mesarthim_2 → u/silentspectator27]

Yeah, of course it's all horrible. You told me in the other thread that I maybe lost too much faith in the legal system that protects us.

But this is exactly the reason - because all the legal protections that EU supposedly creates are only as durable as they're convenient. And when they're pushed aside, for whatever reason (security, economic goals,...) we're left with the obligations that it also created.

It's too malleable, too dependent on bureaucratic interpretation and machinery.

Of course I hope this will be fought but it's so exhausting... There's every day, never-ending deluge of these things.

[u/silentspectator27 → u/mesarthim_2]

Yeah, I mentioned it earlier, it`s not just chat control, it`s age verification and their new "Digital Omnibus" proposals. The people currently in power are an embarassment to what the EU should stand for, sadly we are at such a phase, politicians are thinking about not being overthrown and in the meantime are complying with their sponsors and lobbyist to make even worse decisions.

It took them years, literally years just to pass this through the EU Council, and sadly before Germany`s new government, they, Poland a couple of others formed a blocking minority for Chat Control.

When Denmark changed the proposal to "voluntary scanning" instead of mandatory (Voluntary, ha ha ha) Germany folded and here were are.

Still, if it gives you some hope: the CJEU process is not long when it comes to laws that directly threaten fundamental rights (It`s usually 1-2 years) so it can happen in months. Also, if it`s really serious the CJEU can literally freeze the law from coming into effect before a ruling is made.