Chat Control Proposal Advances Despite Rising Opposition in Europe

[Jim Burton]

https://circleid.com/posts/chat-control ... -in-europe

Support for the European Union’s contentious Chat Control legislation—designed to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM)—remains strong, yet a rising chorus of opposition now threatens to complicate its path to adoption.

The proposed regulation, formally known as the Danish version of the CSAM scanning law, mandates all messaging platforms to screen user content, including encrypted messages, for illegal material. If passed, implementation could begin as early as October 2025. However, the bill has drawn mounting criticism for jeopardising digital privacy and weakening encryption, a core pillar of secure communications.

[Officerkrupke]

Anti-pedophilia is a trojan horse for authoritarianism and censorship.

[Aspire6]

This bill is aimed at "stopping" child pornography and "keeping kids safe" but it will only make their situation worse. They will not ban encryption nor be able to stop people communicating privately. Large companies will comply but smaller, self-hosted and decentralized places will tell them to fuck off, as they should. Europe will soon complain how the problem is "out of control" a year or two after it goes in, assuming it unfortunately passes. That's when you can point and laugh.

I already use services that would tell them to fuck off and continue to support hosts who run their own decentralized servers elsewhere.

[Not Forever]

This bill is aimed at "stopping" child pornography and "keeping kids safe" but it will only make their situation worse. They will not ban encryption nor be able to stop people communicating privately. Large companies will comply but smaller, self-hosted and decentralized places will tell them to fuck off, as they should. Europe will soon complain how the problem is "out of control" a year or two after it goes in, assuming it unfortunately passes. That's when you can point and laugh.

I already use services that would tell them to fuck off and continue to support hosts who run their own decentralized servers elsewhere.

Which maybe, for them, this situation isn’t so bad: as long as there’s an emergency, they can stockpile resources and build political campaigns on it. I can picture in five years’ time people talking about Mastodon as “the problem” and so on...

And after having required scans of chats, facial scans, and documents on every service with even a bit of popularity, they’ll ask for Tor to be shut down and for Windows operating systems to be monitored, with integrated AI to check whether you’re using it “correctly.”

They can profit from it—economically and politically—for a century.

[BLueRibbon]

[A]fter having required scans of chats, facial scans, and documents on every service with even a bit of popularity, they’ll ask for Tor to be shut down and for Windows operating systems to be monitored, with integrated AI to check whether you’re using it “correctly.”

This is really as much of a 'fuck you' to non-MAPs as it is to MAPs.

It's an outrageously impractical and mal-intentioned proposition that will mostly leak nudes of random people to the police

I'll publish an article summarizing my thoughts this weekend.

[Not Forever]

This is really as much of a 'fuck you' to non-MAPs as it is to MAPs.

In my country there was a scandal recently because of pirated/pornographic content spread online, and there are already politicians starting to propose the abolition (unfeasible, I hope) of online anonymity.

The scariest part? There were so many people agreeing with it, talking about accountability, saying things like, “Well, we’re a democracy so it’s not that serious if there’s stricter control over the internet”, and so on… lots of people ready with their ID in hand to be scanned. It was unsettling.

[Liyowo]

Anti-pedophilia is a trojan horse for authoritarianism and censorship.

This. 100% this. That sums it all up.