vertaal naar nederlands: The recent EU push for Chat Control, set for a Council vote around October under the Danish presidency, aims to mandate client-side scanning of all private messages, including end-to-end encrypted ones, ostensibly to detect child sexual abuse material. While the intent sounds noble, history warns us that once such surveillance tech is embedded in our 1-1 communications, it becomes a tool for governments to suppress vocal criticism, much like past wartime crackdowns.
Consider how, during World War I, the U.S. Espionage and Sedition Acts jailed critics for "disloyal" speech that allegedly aided enemies, over 2,000 prosecutions for anti-war views alone. In WWII, even the black press's calls for racial equality were probed as potential sedition that could demoralize troops. And in authoritarian regimes like Nazi Germany, any dissent was equated to treason. Today, with Chat Control's mass scanning infrastructure in place, it's a short step to repurposing it for flagging "harmful" political speech, labeling criticism of government policies as misinformation or collaboration with adversaries, stifling private discussions before they spread. This risk is amplified amid the current escalating tensions between NATO and Russia over Ukraine, where recent events like NATO downing Russian drones over Poland, Putin's warnings of destroyed U.S. relations if Tomahawk missiles are supplied to Kyiv, and Russia's probing of NATO capabilities suggest preparations for broader conflict, potentially leading to crackdowns on anti-war or pro-diplomacy messages in private chats as "aiding the enemy.
This isn't just paranoia; experts from Signal to the EFF highlight the "existential risk" to encryption and privacy, noting how such systems could be expanded to monitor dissent under the guise of security. We must reject this now to avoid a future where private chats become echo chambers of approved opinions only.
