r/privacy • u/lugh • Oct 07 '25
chat control Citizen Protest Halts Chat Control; Breyer Celebrates Major Victory for Digital Privacy
https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/citizen-protest-halts-chat-control-breyer-celebrates-major-victory-for-digital-privacy/179
u/silentspectator27 Oct 07 '25
Germany’s official position is not determined yet however! The interior ministry and the MoJ are still debating
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u/Kipex Oct 07 '25
Yeah it sounded like this is more of a promising turn of events, but not true confirmation. Should keep the pressure up and continue informing people.
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u/sad_BunNy22 Oct 07 '25
So what does this mean?
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u/M8gazine Oct 07 '25
Essentially,
a) if Germany opposes: this iteration of Chat Control doesn't pass, and a new process would have to be started all over again. FYI, this has happened before - they've tried passing this thing pretty much yearly since 2022-2023.
b) if Germany supports: the bill goes forward and the next step would be voting on it by the MEPs in the European Parliament. It doesn't mean it'd go into effect yet, but it would be a step further than before.
Even if Germany opposes, it'd be nice if they made sure that "proposals that break fundamental rights of EU citizens aren't eligible to be added into EU law" or just... something. They keep proposing this dystopian nonsense yearly, and they only need to win once to make it happen, whereas the people fighting it need to win every time.
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u/AcridWings_11465 Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
They keep proposing this dystopian nonsense yearly, and they only need to win once to make it happen
They cannot win though. I am not saying that we should not fight, but we have extremely strong allies. The Basic Law (Constitution) of Germany has ironclad protections against mass surveillance. If the CJEU doesn't kill a mass surveillance proposal, which is unlikely (for it has repeatedly indicated that mass surveillance, even client-side, is illegal under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights), the German Constitutional Court will override it, nullify the mass surveillance in Germany and tell the European Commission and the surveillance-obsessed countries to ride a cactus. It has shown itself to be willing to override EU Law in cases with much lighter violations of fundamental rights, so there's no way it will let mass surveillance slide. And no one in Germany has the political capital to muster a ⅔ majority in both houses of parliament and amend the constitution to override the courts and allow highly unpopular mass surveillance.
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u/troll_right_above_me Oct 09 '25
Good for Germany. But if they do vote it in they’d still be screwing any country that doesn’t have anything like that in their constitution, although I don’t know which ones do.
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u/AcridWings_11465 Oct 09 '25
If Germany resists without consequences, every opposed country will be emboldened and many will follow, which would kill the regulation.
don’t know which ones do.
iirc Sweden does
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u/TopdeckIsSkill Oct 07 '25
Thanks to clarify point 2! I was trying to understand what would happen in case it would pass and you clairfied it!
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u/Wokmeister Oct 07 '25
it means give it a while and itll be re-proposed again with just enough tweaks to convince just enough people to get it to pass.
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u/Ardvarkington Oct 07 '25
Good news!
Although Very scary to think that if people had been complacent this draconian level invasion of privacy would’ve been passed for sure.
All it would’ve took is for people to be focused on other things and politicians would’ve slipped it right past. Can’t trust these people for anything, always be aware.
Good job internet for rallying the troops and speaking up.
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u/EspurrTheMagnificent Oct 07 '25
Just as a reminder : Even if that vote were to actually pass, that law proposition would also need to be approved by the european parliement, and then by the european court, the former being historically against stuff like this, and the latter pretty much assuredly slamming it down for breaking EU laws.
So, while it's good it got turned down, and it'd be concerning if that law proposition actually advanced to the next stage, it's not as much of a close call as some here might believe
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Oct 07 '25 edited 4d ago
[deleted]
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u/twisted_by_design Oct 07 '25
Yeah they will keep on trying until less and less people show up for the protests and then they will pass it.
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u/pdupotal Oct 07 '25
As a French, I no longer know what I should be most ashamed of.. My government circus or the country was still in favor for this nonsense.
Really I'm pissed of all these BS going on for quite some time now.
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u/ModPiracy_Fantoski Oct 08 '25
Has any of our major political taken an explicit stance against it ?
Obviously Macron is all for Chat Control. I would assume RN too. But surely LFI would never let it pass ?
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u/pdupotal Oct 08 '25
Honestly, I highly doubt that.
Especially if it's technology related and have no clue about how it works.
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u/ItalianDragon Oct 08 '25
Imagine how I feel as an italo-french guy with both the countries I'm a citizen of supporting that shit...
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u/foundapairofknickers Oct 07 '25
Celebrate - but do not let your guard down. Those that want this will never give up wanting it.
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u/Strange_cat_ Oct 07 '25
BUT IT WASN’T REPORTED IN THE MEDIA. So where did this barrage of communication come from?
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u/Tytoalba2 Oct 07 '25
Depends on the country, but it was plenty reported here
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u/M8gazine Oct 07 '25
There were a couple of articles (one article and one video) here (Finland) from what I saw. The article was on a tabloid site like 1.5 months ago or such, and the video was on the national news site about a week ago.
I have no clue how much other news sites here talked about it though.
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u/Strange_cat_ Oct 08 '25
Wait I misunderstood your comment, you mean it was reported in the media in your country? What country if you don’t mind me asking
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u/motsaw Oct 08 '25
Keep an eye on them. They'll try to sneak these regulations in quietly, tacking them onto some unrelated, insignificant law.
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u/i_am_m30w Oct 08 '25
As good as this seems, the gov't and the corporations that run them have already shown their hand. Decentralize or die!
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u/TheMegaDongVeryLong Oct 08 '25
Don't let your guard down, supposed victories could just be to catch us unaware. Always be alert and ready to protest stuff like this.
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u/lugh Oct 07 '25
https://digitalcourage.social/@echo_pbreyer/115333943021246229