Today is a dark day for freedom and democracy in Europe. General chat surveillance has been implemented in Brussels. A disgrace.
The so-called Chat Control 1.0 cleared a crucial hurdle in the European Parliament today. This means platforms may once again be allowed to scan private messages, officially on a “voluntary” basis, but in practice this marks the return of indiscriminate monitoring of private communication.
What makes this especially bitter is that a majority of the MEPs who voted were reportedly against it. According to Patrick Breyer, 314 MEPs voted against the regulation, 276 voted in favor and 17 abstained. And yet the rejection failed because it was not enough to have a simple majority of those voting. An absolute majority of all MEPs would have been required.
That is the democratic scandal.
When a majority of those present votes against a proposal and it still passes because a formal threshold is not reached, it does not feel like democratic decision-making to many citizens. It feels like a procedural trick.
And it becomes even more problematic when you look at the context: Chat Control had already been rejected before. Yet the issue was put back on the agenda shortly before the summer break, through an urgent procedure, at a time when absences could become decisive.
This is not just some technical regulation. It goes to the very core of private communication. It is about whether digital messages remain fundamentally private or whether platforms may systematically scan content again, without concrete suspicion, without a court order and without any individual cause.
A free society must not turn private communication into a potential surveillance zone. Anyone who takes digital fundamental rights seriously cannot accept millions of innocent people being placed under general suspicion.
Today, a dangerous signal was sent: fundamental rights can be hollowed out through procedural logic, timing and political tricks. Not through an open, clear and honest majority, but through a system in which absence effectively helps the supporters.
This is a dark day for Europe.
Not because the fight is over, but because today showed how easily digital fundamental rights come under pressure when surveillance logic, symbolic politics and institutional tricks come together.
Anyone who wants a free internet, anyone who wants to protect private communication and anyone who takes democracy seriously should talk about this.
Share this issue. Inform yourself. Look at who voted how. And never forget: freedom rarely disappears all at once. It disappears step by step, often in technical details, often in complicated procedures and often exactly when too few people are watching.
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@SprinterPress This ain’t it.. drones can be programmed to fly unlike swarms. Also deploying drones is way faster than these cannons. Also; communication with humans and flags against a drone swarm?? What’s this?
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Bro he already is.. sorry but the work he posted supersedes all student level stuff I’ve ever seen on tu delft mechanical engineering. If he pushed onwords he could do the more challenging non linear sub atomic engineering stuff which is needed for instance for asml chip fabbing. Ethan if you read this you are a smart cookie. Keep going and follow your passion. Do not know who your mentor is but it’s seems it’s working ;) keep going.
This diary of a ceo is such a moron. sitting there smug telling how he invested in this shit and hit 30x and then telling that he will sell now.. only being reminded that there is a lockup period. Such an idiot sandwich. Not great advertising telling the audience you intend to sell meanwhile throwing out this shitty one liners “never bet against Elon uhh” and “I’ve got a Tesla hmm”. Also the prop up of neuro link. “He HAs CReaAteD MaGIC”. Also the phrase “if it’s within the laws of physics it’s possible”. It similar to saying “if the bakery is open, we will have a sandwich”. Morons.