EU publishes Orwellian 'chat control' law allowing AI to spy on ALL online interactions

The European Commission's published a draft law today that would give lawmakers the ability to monitor and scan EU citizens' text messages and images to 'combat child sex abuse.' But instead of going after actuall online sex offenders, the EU will now treat all its citizens as possible sex offenders and will scan all their chats and email to confirm they're not. The EU wants to oblige providers to search all private chats, messages, and emails automatically for suspicious content – generally and indiscriminately. The stated aim: To prosecute child pornography. The result: Mass surveillance by means of fully automated real-time messaging and chat control and the end of secrecy of digital correspondence.

Previously, a majority of the Members of the European Parliament adopted and earlier version of the "chat control regulation on 6 July, 2021 allowing providers to scan communications voluntarily. So far only some unencrypted US services such as GMail, Meta/Facebook Messenger and X-Box apply chat control voluntarily. But this is was not the end of the story.

Today, The European Commission announced that it will propose follow-up legislation that will make the use of chatcontrol mandatory for all e-mail and messenger providers. This legislation would also apply to so far securely end-to-end encrypted communications services. In other words, what was a voluntary practice which involved few corporations, will now become a mandated measure that will encompass all internet companies and corporations. There would be literally no escape from this.

35 civil society organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the German Bar Association, the European Digital Rights (EDRi), and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have all been raising awareness about this invasive legislation.

In a letter addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other high-ranking EU officials, the groups write

"In the context of the upcoming EU legislation to effectively tackle child abuse, we urge the Commission to ensure that people’s private communications do not become collateral damage of the forthcoming legislation.

People under attack depend on privacy-preserving technologies to communicate with journalists, to coordinate protection for their families, and to fight for their safety and rights.

Equally in peacetime, people’s ability to communicate without unjustified intrusion — whether online or offline — is vital for their rights and freedoms, as well as for the development of vibrant and secure communities, civil society and industry.

Experts agree that there is no way to give law enforcement exceptional access to communications that are encrypted end-to-end without creating vulnerabilities that criminals and repressive governments can exploit.

As the recent Pegasus scandals have shown, the unfettered tapping of people’s devices poses huge risks to journalists, politicians, human rights defenders and the preservation of democratic society." In a separate statement, European Digital Rights group says that this legislation “would allow companies to spy on everyone's communications.”

None of this is being reported by the media, so almost no one is aware of how the EU commission wants to implement the most authoritarian measure since the end of WW2 and literally spy on every EU citizen. Not surprisingly, the “champions” of “democratic norms” and “rule of law” in the EU, not only do not oppose what could be described as an outright fascist move by the EU commission which will turn the whole of the EU into a totalitarian corporate police state where everyone have everything they ever say or post online spied on, they whole heartedly support it.