this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2024
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Chat surveillance law by the EU Parliament? (results.elections.europa.eu)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

The results are showing up... Now we have to hope for the law to be declined... Already discussed about the chat control law of the EU, here : https://lemmy.ml/post/16469106

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't scanning before upload imply the encryption is broken somewhere? Is that the point, to remove encryption? Forgive my naivete.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago

For sure! The EU will tell to the apps to backdoored their encryption to accept this law. For example Google, Meta and Microsoft are okay with it if it is implemented. And Signal would leave the EU market.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

We need more censorship-resistant, private, decentralized communication protocols. We need them to be widespread enough that lawmakers see censoring/controlling them as technically impossible and politically unwise. That means they need to be easy to use for the average person so we can get sufficient adoption. Donate to your software of choice, that's how it happens.

This is kinda how Bitcoin is. Even if a nation-sate wants to "ban" it or attack the network, the network is gonna keep working and doing its thing (technically impossible) and they will piss off a bunch of voters and/or other keys to political power and potentially lose out on businesses and jobs building in this sector (politically unwise). The CCP tried to ban Bitcoin some years ago, did not work at all, and the network wasn't nearly as strong or large as it is today.

[–] possiblylinux127 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I would say matrix but that is unlikely. Simplex Chat and Signal it is.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Matrix is in fact decentralized, SimpleX too. But Signal is centralized.

[–] possiblylinux127 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I won't disagree

Signal has downsides but it us still better than Whatsapp

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Almost everything is better than WhatsApp

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (5 children)

I thought the chat control law idea kinda died already

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago

They will try to bring it back to life every few years or so

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago (2 children)

political elites in Europe are afraid and fear upheavals are coming in the coming years and months because of the cost of living crisis and the war. They try to clamp down beforehand to preserve their own power. This always happens when things go bad. The leash is kept looser when people behave and it's tightened again when the opposite happens. There is no real freedoms that is given to the people by the elites, because what concessions they give willingly they can just as easily take away when they no longer feel like it. Provided that they think they can get away with it.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

It's not just European elites who are afraid of upheaval. It's all of them. It's one of the reasons why they all have bunkers, why Zuckerberg is building another one in Hawaii recently. They know that we can actually do something about them because we outnumber them by a lot, so they build these systems of control. Governments, corps, elites have all become noticeably more brazen in the past several years.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is why we shouldn't let such people to the government in the first place. Anyone who believes in "patriotism" and "national interest" (that appears to be 99% of people in the democratic world) will disagree though. It's a matter of double standards, lack of understanding and care at this point

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (9 children)

nope, they'll vote on it again in the few weeks. if it passes, e2ee messengers will be required to scan images on device before sending them. you will be able to not agree to that, but then you won't be able to send or receive media and links, only text.

https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/chat-control/

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Great, so I'm seing this right that everyone is voting Yes?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That's it, only the green party is "okay"

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Why is this not headline number 1 in every newspaper? It can't get any more dystopian than that. Why does nobody care, god damnit...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Why it's not number 1? Because people are using SMS, Messenger and Instagram chats...

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Is it true it's already implemented by google, meta...?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

No it's not implemented but they would implemented this backdoor if the law pass

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

But why can't you just use software from GitHub or F-Droid or something that doesn't have to obey these laws? Is it illegal?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (3 children)

good luck getting everyone you know to communicate with you with "software from GitHub or F-Droid or something". I'm having a hard time making people try out Signal, which is freely available on the major app stores (and which, by the way, has declared that they'll leave the EU market if one device scanning will be enforced on them).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (4 children)

I think this would give me a reason to tell my contacts why I refuse from now on to use whatsapp for instance. I could say something like whatsapp now scans every single photo you send, therefore I won't use it so contact me on some other place.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Good luck with it, mister/miss

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Thank you, good luck to you too

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Signal is great but lack some points, like the requirement of the mobile number or the centralisation of the servers

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

okay, but that's not relevant to what I'm talking about here.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

In fact it would be illegal but you wouldn't take risks by using them. But the authorities could make them shut down one by one

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Even if this is illegal - how would such usage be detected? Your device just makes a request to a random domain on a random VPS, and the traffic is TLS-encrypted - would usage of XMPP/Matrix/whatever be that distinct?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

I totally understand and this approval is absolutely ridiculous just because it's almost impossible apply this... But even with almost 0 chance applying to every apps it's better to kill this law as soon as possible

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (6 children)

They can't if you use a VPN and the app is not in their jurisdiction

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Never, they'll try again and again with different names, covered by different purposes and stuck to another law.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

They try every year...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I sent my friend "ax4uol4wj83birqti336mk92mu8" and that's what he got

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It is cute that they think they can regulate the use of math and how the internet can be used.

lol

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[–] possiblylinux127 3 points 5 months ago

If this ever makes it to the US I am going to put up a hell of a fight. On my left will be California and on my right Texas.

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