That title is polemical, okay? But it’s morally right.
If anybody cares, what actually happened is that an extension of the European Union’s mass surveillance regulation known as Chat Control 1.0 failed to make it out of the European Parliament twice in March. Unable to summon a clear parliamentary majority, advocates (mostly in the centre-Right European People’s Party (EPP)) turned to the European Council, which adopted the failed Chat Control 1.0 renewal on July 2nd. The Council’s position hardens automatically into law unless the European Parliament can summon an absolute majority to stop it. To forestall any such majority from forming, the EPP on Tuesday moved with member state backing for urgent procedure, angling to force their scheme through in the last days before the summer holiday, after many MEPs had already left. The parliament narrowly approved the urgent procedure, and in consequence there were not enough votes to stop Chat Control 1.0 when it came for a vote today. Hours ago, a majority of 314 MEPs voted to stop Chat Control against the wishes of the Council, while a minority of 276 voted to let it happen. Because 314 is less than the absolute majority of 361, Chat Control 1.0 passed even though most MEPs present didn’t want it to.
It was a sleazy vote, not least because it’s far from clear this procedural manoeuvre was even appropriate in this case. Also, electronic surveillance is bad, but if we are honest with ourselves this battle was already lost.
Chat Control 1.0 was first instated in 2021 as a temporary exemption to the ePrivacy Directive of the EU, allowing messaging services and online platforms to scan chats and other electronic communications for child sexual abuse material. The exemption expired in April, but various platforms have continued their surveillance with no legal basis in the intervening months. Now their formal permission to scan our private communications has been restored and extended through April 2028. We are, in other words, merely returning to the prior regime.
Chat Control 1.0 is a temporary stopgap while the European Parliament, the Commission and the Council try to negotiate their Child Sexual Abuse Regulation, or Chat Control 2.0. As envisioned by the Commission, this permanent law would not merely allow platforms to scan private communications for child sex abuse material, but require them to do so; would require additional AI-assisted automated scanning not only for known child pornography but also for such vaguely defined activities as ‘grooming’; and would extend scanning to end-to-end encrypted services like Signal via mandatory monitoring on the client side. This insane proposal has been watered down over the years, in large part because of parliamentary opposition, but it’s coming in some form. We’re getting Chat Control 2.0 before Chat Control 1.0 expires, and Chat Control 2.0 will be at least somewhat worse.
What’s amazing to me about all of this is this man:
His name is Manfred Weber, and he’s a Bavarian politician (CSU) who also happens to be President of the pro-surveillance EPP and leader of the EPP faction in the European Parliament. Weber loves electronic surveillance and he has been the driving force behind Chat Control from the beginning. Naturally, Chat Control is something that Weber would have a lot of trouble imposing in Germany, where surveillance is widely deplored and where our Basic Law guarantees as “inviolable” the so-called Briefgeheimnis – “the privacy of correspondence, posts and telecommunications”. From his perch in the European Parliament, however, he has been able to hollow out this core constitutional principle of the Federal Republic from a procedurally rigged vote in Strasbourg, without any domestic debate or anybody in the Bundestag having a single thing to say about it.
This is a very advanced novel form of democracy that we have achieved here in the European Union.
This article originally appeared on Eugyppius’s Substack newsletter. You can subscribe here.
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This demonstrates why the 17.4 million Brexit voters were right. There is nothing democratic about the EU: it is a reincarnation of the Soviet Union.
The EU born out of the evils of a fascist dictatorship to bind europe together and prevent a recurrence, has itself become a fascist dictatorship.
Perhaps more like Mussolini’s model of fascism (without a dictator) than the USSR. The EU is more than happy to work with compliant corporations. allow private property rights and freedom of travel unlike the USSR.
Errrrrr, we’re no longer part of the effin EU, so they can shove the stupid BS authoritarian crap back up where presently no sun shines, tossers…
After all, it seems be one thing we can still manufacture for ourselves in the UK.
Ahh, the sweet smell of democracy…
“… Martin Weber… without any domestic debate or anybody in the Bundestag having a single thing to say about it.” A special, sleazy kind of democracy.
(Off T
Anne Widdecome was murdered!!)
The BBC says they are looking for a white male. When they don’t specify the race then what are they saying?
Immediately ‘white male’ if it had been any other ethnicity it would be ‘a man’
I’m guessing a far leftard!
Btw DS, could there be an area for latest updates from contributors instead of having to do off topic posts below the the most current headline? I for one dont like doing off topic like this as it seams rude to the writers of the topics!?
Maybe a contributor tickertape section just above the latest headlines? Just a thought
No wonder the globalist/madleft alliance loves the EU.
On the other hand, this is an opportunity to make sure that everyone we’re acquainted with understands what an absolute and categorical fake the EU “parliament” is.
Well, I’d have more respect for the MEPs if they blockaded the EU Council offices and kicked up a shitstorm. Because this should be a constitutional crisis.
What it reveals is how the EU has always been built. The Parliament, which is actually directly elected, is IMHO the best part of the sorry structure. But look what happens – if it starts acting up (by Voting Wrongly), the Council and Commission stomp all over it. And no-one bats an eyelid.
This is exactly how the EU is intended to work, Monnet’s design of the Acquis Communautaire was arrived at to ensure that anything outside the desires of the technocrats in charge would be unable to gain any traction.
The Parliament was always meant to be a pretence at democracy since the EU Commission run the EU and the EU Council rubber stamp whatever is put before them. The Parliament can suggest ideas to the Council and can vote against things but as we see, a majority vote against something is not a majority vote against something.
And there are some ordinary people in this country who want to go back??!!!
crazy
Britain is the same or worse. The same sort of people with the same sort of ideas are entrenched in power. Same system.
A powerful bureaucratic elite do what they like. When elections rubberstamp their policies they claim it’s the will of the people. When they don’t, they push ahead anyway while manufacturing some form of consent in the various ways we all know.
Propaganda in mainstream media, getting parliament to quietly pass the legislation they need, manipulating opinion polls.
And of course any resistance that still prevails.is labelled fascist, racist, conspiracy-theorist, etc.
And if still the resistance prevails, throw some of them in jail (Lucy Connolly) and take down the leaders (Farage, Robinson)
Totally agree. The problem is not with the EU or the UK government. They’re as bad as each other. They both come up with almost the same nonsense, in lockstep, according to the latest tyrannical fads. Or the same pressure from sinister lobbyists.
I supported Remain way back then, because I thought EU laws would protect us from this kind of nonsense. I was wrong. My friends on the Leaver side hoped to prevent the same nonsense by bringing power back to a UK government answerable to them. They were wrong too.
It’s so depressing.
I expect stuff like this is one of the reasons they want to go back.