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 --^
Including it here because Chat Control goes against the spirit of Open-Source technologies (which are usually meant and built for control over one’s device, privacy, trust… and no black boxes analyzing the content of messages you’re sending to your partner).
Prohibition leads to the propagation of means of evasion. By attempting to ban teenagers from popular means of communications they will incentivize mass adoption of “illicit means” of communications, and create another generation both familiar and comfortable with “illegal online activity” like the Napster generation. Just like Napster, this will also accidentally push youth into online platforms and channels where they are more likely to encounter content not suitable for minors and malware.
The only “truly effective” form that this type of internet control can take is requiring a digital ID verification to establish a connection to the network at the ISP, and that is a nightmare setup we should be prepared to fight tooth and nail.