Current Events > The EU is still pushing for the mandatory scanning of all online communications

(+) Yeah! (+)

The excuse is to prevent child abuse, despite the fact that the legislation is based on lies, exaggerated data, and is designed to destroy secure communications and increase surveillance powers generally. The politicians involved have apparently refused to meet with any of the organizations that have voiced concerns not only about privacy, but about the fact that it is garbage that won't help kids.

From the EFF:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/10/eu-lawmakers-must-reject-proposal-scan-private-chats

An AMA on Reddit from a concerned group:
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/y9nhbo/ama_were_from_the_stopscanningme_campaign_and/

Information on what's going on and how we got here from an EU politician who is opposed to the legislation:
https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/chat-control/

"It's for the children" is a popular vehicle to push legislation like this because realistically how can you even argue against protecting them? It's almost evil how Governments abuse that angle.

Vyrulisse posted...

"It's for the children" is a popular vehicle to push legislation like this because realistically how can you even argue against protecting them?

There are two good arguments. One, the legislation really isn't for the children: it's a bill to give the police more power, and although it is framed around the issue of child abuse, it is easy to see how they will want these powers for regular policing too (I'm not familiar with all the details myself, but apparently there would be a way for police to generally access the harvested data for other crimes). The second is that the bill was written on false premises: they let companies and private individuals tell them what is possible and what is needed instead of listening to independent experts. They won't even meet with any groups critical of the bill, even if that criticism has nothing to do with encryption or privacy. There are plenty of knowledgeable advocates that think this sucks for not seriously addressing harm to children, but they are being ignored too.

For example, when EARN IT was making the rounds (that's the US version of this that is waiting in the wings for its time to shine), some advocates were very concerned that increased government control over communications would lead to a reduction in the ability to discuss abuse and for victims to have their voices heard. Not all victims are happy with an increase in the status quo: many don't like that certain organizations are allowed to retain abuse material indefinitely for research and police purposes. Other paths to reducing abuse--like targeted police actions or increased aid and social support to help stop production abuse material--are never seriously considered by politicians.

If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.

If you're not a terrorist why would you be scared of the Patriot act

AlephZero posted...

If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.

If the government has no reasonable suspicion that a person is a child predator, they have no reason to riffle through their messages and photos. Automated scanning technology generates false positives, and applying it to absolutely everything will generate many more false positives with real world consequences. It will waste police time and resources that would be better spent solving actual crimes. It will make it harder to police actual abuse, and may lead to life-ending accusations for innocent people. And that's before the use of mandatory scanning is extended to regular crimes too, especially with global political instability and a looming global economic crisis.

I thought GCHQ monitored everything already?

AlephZero posted...

If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.

"if youre not guilty, you have zero reason to worry about crooked cops."

well thats a big yikes

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

For now, it's 100% gonna happen eventually.

Vyrulisse posted...

For now, it's 100% gonna happen eventually.

We don't lose every battle we fight, and apparently the German government is less than pleased with what is in the proposal, so even if it does eventually become law, it might be something very different.

Vyrulisse posted...

"It's for the children" is a popular vehicle to push legislation like this because realistically how can you even argue against protecting them? It's almost evil how Governments abuse that angle.

it's always either this or "anti-terrorism"

1984

This is a bit of a shock because the EU has been pretty progressive on online privacy and data collection lately. Disappointing.

You'd think they'd have come up with some excuse for this crap by now other then 'for the children'. A Praise that's been a meme since way back when the Simpsons did it.

A better option is for countries to create an agency that social media can send serious threats or concerns to. It's too big a problem to ignore, but we don't need anyone scanning tweets, just make laws requiring enforcement of rules and create an agency to take in reports and follow up.