Chat Control passed first round in EU Parliament

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• Hacker News
• I'm always astonished how democratic politicians willingly allow for tools which might be misused by a future undemocratic party.

  I'm not a politician or some civil rights activist but I can see that. It's right there. We have a similar situation in Germany these days. We'll be giving more rights to the Federal Intelligence Service ( foreign intelligence) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (domestic intelligence). Basically allowing them to act more offensive (or offensive at all).

  We're one or two elections away from having fascists in the government again.

  Is it already a conspiracy theory if I suspect them of doing that deliberately because I can't imagine them being stupid?

  by Krasnol
• So now that this is done the first thing we need is a list of platform covered and potentially covered by Chat Control.

  It is still unclear to me if Proton Mail, Tuta, SimpleX servers, Signal, etc. fall under this or might.

  Do they even have to officially declare if they are complying?

  by sunshine-o
• Local governments are likely to block the initiative. We need a Polish based messenger that won't bend to chat control fascist initiatives.
  by cynicalsecurity
• Nothing is brought to the Commission that local governments do not secretly want, but publically rage against because the voters are against it.

  When Brussles then decides, 'there's nothing we can do, it's an EU thing' ... and a moustache-twirl.

  The only thing that can stop this is to completely dismantle the EU. Which means, unfortunately, voting for people any good person should rightfully despise.

  by DocTomoe
• The cypherpunks were right. Rights to encryption are only a part of what we need.

  The other part is steganography, or hiding real messages within a innocuous anodyne message stream. And encryption can be used in conjunction as part of hiding said messages.

  It can be within pictures with the lowest bit values. It can be constructed punctuation and spaces. Lots of things.

  But hidden and plausibly deniable messaging is the ONLY way to defeat a government(s) that want to invade every communication aspect for humans.

  by nekusar
• That's an excellent take.

  Unfortunately, verified devices will close that loophole.

  by nullorempty
• What I don't understand is, what kind of legitimate criminal would not use such techniques? Are bank robbers planning things out on iMessage? If so, presumably they won't be criminals for very long. Therefore these types of initiatives only impact the innocent and inept but still active criminals.
  by osigurdson
• The trouble with pictures is that when you share them online the platform will likely compress them before serving them to others, spoiling your steganography. I think text-in-text is the way to go. Decrypt that recipe for brownies into the actual message. For example: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.20075
  by __MatrixMan__
• Life in EU seems like a mother-in-law simulator.

  Like cool you get leftovers you can warm up (never something fresh, innovative), but then you also have to deal with the drama and cringe.

  by moomoo11
• Talked to a fellow European coworker recently and they seem very supportive of chat control and that it was necessary to stop "far right nationalism" and then I pressed on for them describe what it is and they got angry and refused to clarify. I think this is a good snapshot of where Europe is right now that chat controls have become politically weaponized and people who are supportive of it seem clueless as to what it actually is proposing.

  Future looks very dim for EU as a whole, I'm glad I left it for America

  by zuzululu
• you're right, the US is totally freedom and stuff. no problemo that you gotta show your social media accounts when entering, so you can get checked for alignment with the regime. no problem at all. both suck atm, that's the truth
  by RamblingCTO
• i'm so tired of this bs, these elected people act as tsars, even when said NO they try again and again while employing shady tactics and there is no way of punishing these a*holes. Elections exist, but when same 35% (number taken out of butt, but point is - it's low) of people vote we get same sht who elects same sht to EU. And i don't know about other countries, but my country sends complete degenerates to EU, like litteraly degenerates.
  by tadasZ
• > ... these elected people act as tsars, ...

  They are not elected. Even the EU is illegal, since joining the EU was rejected by people of many European countries, but that was ignored.

  They just do what they want and do thorough media coverage. In rare cases that doesn't work, people just dissapear.

  by miroljub
• Lobbyists running the show. It's kind of a copy/paste of the US system.
  by shevy-java
• > Meta, Google or Microsoft ... to voluntarily search private chats, emails, and messenger services for material related to [excuse]

  Look, there are no private chats on any platform or app provided by Meta, Google or Microsoft. They are known to send a copy of everything at least to the US government (the Snowden revelation). So, what's it to them to also do searches on behalf of European authorities? Plus, what do you mean, you don't want to? Are you for the pedophiles? Maybe you're a pedophile yourself! Search his chat logs, tout de suite!

  We must really get the people around us to stop using WhatsApp, Teams, GMail, and all of that junk. There are excellent alternatives - we are only a laziness' reach away from actual half-decent privacy.

  by einpoklum
• If we're gonna be undemocratic, can we at least also get have bullet trains and expanded social programs?
  by xyzsparetimexyz
• I wish… instead in Germany we are getting Merz disdain and mandatory doctor approval for sick days…
  by dgellow
• Effect of law enforcement not doing their jobs. Chat Control is illegal in many countries including Germany and that includes preparation for the roll out. Just need a prosecutor with a spine.
  by varispeed
• i'm so tired of this bs, these elected people act as tsars, even when said NO they try again and again while employing shady tactics and there is no way of punishing these a**holes. Elections exist, but when same 35% (number taken out of butt, but point is - it's low) of people vote we get same sh*t who elects same sh*t to EU. And i don't know about other countries, but my country sends complete degenerates to EU, like litteraly degenerates.
  by tadasZ
• So, private companies can't track you, but the people with the state's monopoly on violence can?

  This is how everything seems to go with the EU. Great idea followed by something objectionable.

  by lenerdenator
• "perché uno uomo che voglia fare in tutte le parte professione di buono, conviene rovini infra tanti che non sono buoni."
  by okokwhatever
• Hopefully this could be the first good thing about Brexit...this might not get implemented in the UK or there will be a delay!
  by aquir
• > Hopefully this could be the first good thing about Brexit

  Was having lots of people's lives saved by a much faster vaccine rollout not a good thing?

  by graemep
• UK already technically banned encryption, causing Apple to remove the encrypted cloud service for UK customers. Check UK's "Investigatory Powers Act (IPA)"
  by MyMemoryfails
• The way the uk is legislating online stuff lately I’m expecting UK version to be worse than EU
  by Havoc
• Hilarious that the politicians, the very people who are pretty much always ousted as some form of degenerate pedophile the world over, are the ones pushing for this bullshit and explicitly carving out enclaves where their messages don't get scanned.

  Absolute fucking joke

  by sensanaty
• "No means yes" in government form.
  by someguyornotidk
• This is the anti-EU move but they simply don't understand that.

  Authoritarian centralization efforts need to be fought Huang style - with an European twist - as we might be behind on a lot of axis but we "Didn't Wake Up a Loser".

  China / US leadership must not be the carte-blanche to formalize whatever low bar in how we handle our own privacy; going straight for the "self own" I guess?

  Sorry for prompt mode but I hope this is at least somewhat legible to fellow Europeans, if not please listen to antirez in original Italian or auto translated:

  https://youtu.be/cmYiWsFn3GM

  I hear quite a few tangents in there; the main one being: especially in EU we need to go "agentic". Don't wait for politics to do The Right Thing. They should play retrospective backup at best.

  I'm thinking they might be actually thankful for having been provided vision / imagination.

  Team up with the bureaucrats after the fact but don't listen to them too much - again - to Do The Right Thing. Especially when they are potentially infected by lobbyists...

  FFS I hate this timeline; we really need to show up for real. Again and again and again and again...

  by musha68k
• Huang style? What does this mean?
  by gmueckl
• It is really worrisome to me that such a procedure is even possible. I don't understand all the EU voting rules, they are so complex that it feels to me like if they want to push something through there is always some way to do it even though the vast majority of people don't want it.
  by Zufriedenheit