UnsplashA campaign to rally against the European Union “scanning” every message you send from your phone has taken off online.
Over the years, a number of messaging apps have become popular with internet users who are concerned about their privacy. The likes of Telegram, Signal, and WhatsApp are supposed to be encrypted to ensure that there is plenty of security for users.
However, the European Union has unveiled its Chat Control proposal, which would require all messaging services – including emails – to ‘scan’ messages in order to crack down on child exploitation and abuse.
As it stands, three members of the European Union oppose the proposal, which 15 are backing it, and another nine are undecided.
Chat Control law timeline
The Fight Chat Control campaign has been started to fight against it, trying to get residents to contact their Members of the European Parliament about it.
They believe that the child protection measures are ultimately “ineffective” and have tapped experts to give their view. They’re also concerned about “false positives” being flagged during the scanning of messages.
“Automated scanners routinely misidentify innocent content, such as vacation photos or private jokes, as illegal, putting ordinary people at risk of false accusations and damaging investigations,” Fight Chat Control adds.
Screenshot via Fight Chat ControlThe Chat Control measures, which have been labelled as the “most criticized law of all time,” will be decided upon on October 14. That gives Fight Chat Control just two months to rally against it.
As Tuta notes, Hungary and Sweden have been pushing for extra protection measures since 2022, but counter-campaigners have been successful in shooting them down.
This time around, the Danish presidency of the EU Council is proposing a new version of Chat Control measures that campaigners believe would create an “Orwellian world.”
It follows the Stop Killing Games movement as the new viral campaign in the European Union. That surpassed it’s goal of 1 million signatures a while back.