FLASH NEWS
Are our messages being read? Europe is opening the door to digital surveillance with ChatControl
2025-12-16 15:19:30 / MISTERE&KURIOZITETE
For more than two years, a major debate has been taking place in the European Union, but little understood by the general public. It concerns a legal proposal known as ChatControl , a regulation that aims to combat online child sexual abuse. The intention is good, but the proposed tool risks leading Europe into a new era of control, where the privacy of communications could fade to the point of extinction.
It all started in 2021, when the European Commission proposed that digital platforms be required to scan users' messages to detect illegal content. It was the first time that a mechanism was publicly called for, which in practice opens the door to widespread surveillance of private communications.
The debate immediately erupted. Technology experts, human rights organizations and even figures within European institutions warned that such a tool is extremely dangerous. Because if our messages, everyone's, can be scanned by an algorithm, then the basic principle of private communication and encryption falls. And when this principle falls, a precedent is opened that is difficult to stop.
In recent days, EU member states have agreed on the latest changes to the regulation. The most controversial point, the mandatory scanning of private messages, has been removed. But the risk has not disappeared. Companies are still allowed to carry out voluntary mass scanning, and the exemption that gives them this right will be extended beyond 2026. In practice, this means that the surveillance technology remains there, functional and can be expanded by political decision at any time.
Critics warn that this is the most dangerous phase: once a mechanism is put into place, it rarely goes back. It starts out as a tool to fight a serious crime, but then can be used for other reasons, affecting journalists, activists, political opposition, or just ordinary citizens seeking privacy.
This debate also concerns us, because communication technologies know no borders. EU rules also affect the global platforms we use every day. Because a Europe with weakened privacy standards ends up creating control models that can spread further. And because digital freedom is today an essential part of individual freedom.
ChatControl is a turning point for the future of communication. It's the question of whether we accept that our messages, photos, conversations, and most intimate thoughts can pass through the filters of a scanning system, no matter how sophisticated or well-intentioned.
In the name of a righteous goal, a means that violates a fundamental human freedom: privacy should not be normalized .
This is why the debate is growing, why criticism is increasing, and why many European citizens say that the EU is moving away from the principle of being "of the people, by the people, for the people."
Because when control over communications becomes possible, everything else can change silently.
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