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submitted 1 week ago by vas@lemmy.ml to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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).

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[-] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 25 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The current proposal as far as I understand it is that they will tell a company/service to "voluntaraly" scan the content.

Then an open source project that is forced to comply can just stop development and be forked on the last commit and shrug shoulders.

Which will buy enough time, because legally making those requests will take time and work. I can easily see fork related infrastructure for end users making it really eash or automatic to keep up with that cycle.

But even better would be to develop open source hardware based communication solutions, that don't have the ability to add a backdoor through a software patch. Think like a pager with all the security and privacy bells and whistles.

[-] vas@lemmy.ml 26 points 1 week ago

A much better and desired solution is to stop this law from ever happening by societal pressure, in my personal opinion. I wasn't born in the EU, but I live here many years now. I choose to believe that EU isn't fully corrupted, and that many good and meaningful changes are still happening.

[-] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yes, but how though?

We've stopped chat control over and over for years. But now they seem to have went through with it.

Usually the linked website has instructions. Now it simply says:

About the Vote: The Council mandate was today endorsed by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER). About the Procedure: The text will now be negotiated with the European Parliament. The Parliament’s mandate (adopted in Nov 2023) explicitly rules out indiscriminate scanning and demands targeted surveillance based on suspicion.

If there is an organized protest in front of the parlament, link it please.

[-] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 week ago

This is depressing.

[-] Cooper8@feddit.online 21 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 1 points 1 week ago

that won't work anymore, because today not even just to youth, but everyone the only thing that matters is convenience. their friends are not on there? they are not interested! maybe they would try it for fun? too bad, their phone does not allow installing it

[-] Batmorous@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Recommend you read https://goodgoodgood.co/ 2 articles on Hope: study find hope key to a meaningful life, & new study finds hopeful people live better lives (14 year study)

Doom and gloom gets nobody anywhere. Get active with others. Together we brainstorm and do. Plenty of people globally are already doing as well but the more the merrier.

The more of us doing the quicker, better, and faster we succeed! Switch people to open source!!

[-] Cooper8@feddit.online 2 points 1 week ago

You are vastly underestimating the youths current addiction to social media. Take it away and you will see some rapid pursuit of novelty.

[-] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 1 points 6 days ago

who said they'll take away social media. the popular addictive services will remain

[-] Cooper8@feddit.online 1 points 6 days ago

Australia is leading the way, multiple EU nations have stated interest/intent: https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/science/these-nations-might-ban-social-media-for-teenagers/story

[-] kambusha@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

e2eu encryption

this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2025
209 points (100.0% liked)

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