📌 EU “Chat Control” Law Sparks Privacy Backlash 🛑📱

[lingriiddd]

The EU is weighing the “Chat Control” regulation, originally proposed to fight online child abuse. The bill would force messaging apps to screen all private messages before encryption.

But opponents — from MEPs to civil rights groups — argue it risks:

Weakening encryption, creating exploitable security gaps.

Mass surveillance, affecting millions with no link to crime.

False positives, overwhelming law enforcement with useless alerts.

Even German law already allows some forms of encrypted message interception, raising fears it could expand EU-wide.

400 scientists signed an open letter this week warning the law is “unsuitable for large-scale detection.”

On Oct. 14, the EU Council will decide: strengthen child protection, or risk eroding digital freedoms for all Europeans.

[Nahid Hossen]

Scanning before encryption = backdoor by design. You can’t weaken encryption “just for the bad guys.”

[Rimon Khan]

400 scientists warning it’s “unsuitable for large-scale detection” should be the headline. Lawmakers rarely listen to the people who actually understand the tech.

[Abdul Khan]

Important: once mass scanning is normalized, the scope always expands. Today it’s child protection, tomorrow it’s political dissent.