Europe in digital chains: From naive control to shameless betrayal

Where the hell do I start?

There's so much happening at the same time that I don't really know where to start. The European dream of freedom and transparency is about to collapse. As citizens struggle to keep a grip on their own data, policymakers are rolling out the red carpet for surveillance, censorship and the big tech companies we should be curbing. This is not progress, this is digital serfdom.

“Freedom never dies in one fell swoop, but in a thousand bureaucratic bits.”

Chatcontrol: The Nightmare Behind Your Screen

Chatcontrol sounds harmless, but is actually an Orwellian project: local scanning of all your messages and photos before they are encrypted. Everyone is guilty until proven guilty. Everything that seems suspicious ends up at Interpol or the nearest police station via GPS.

The argument that this would protect children is a smokescreen. There are many reasons not to do this. Politicians are already suffering from a lack of capacity. What will they do with millions of beach photos of parents with their children? And who can guarantee that privacy-friendly services such as Signal will not just leave the EU, so that we fall back on Zuckerberg and partners?

Imagine: you crash with your mountain bike, send a picture of your torn bike pants with bruises. (Really done). In Groesbeek, you can then explain why you sent ‘childlike-looking sensitive parts’.
Or you take a picture of your child playing on the beach during your holiday in Lesvos. Ordinary family memory, but thanks to Chatcontrol, it can suddenly be considered suspicious and you end up on Interpol's radar.
Or you're on your way to Paris for a fun weekend. You send your partner a spicy message in the Thalys (the high-speed train to Paris that runs past Brussels and Zaventem airport). Before you know it, you can explain at the police station in Zaventem why you sent such a photo. Weekend ruined.

And then the absurdity at the top: that we as EU companies from the US (such as Meta) ask to check our citizens. Since when is that a good idea? And suppose that tomorrow North Korea launches a popular messenger app: Are we going to force them to build in a scanner that will scan all your photos? The idea is not only dangerous, it's downright insane.

How deep can you sink as a society if you ask Meta to control your citizens? Protest here: https://fightchatcontrol.eu/

Those who exchange security for control lose both.”

Age gate: England as a laboratory of distrust

The UK requires online services to introduce age checks. With draconian fines in prospect, everything is put behind a digital identity wall. You want to read an article about an Olympic gymnast in a tight leotard? Then you must first hold your passport in front of a random webcam.

The consequences are absurd: Adults refuse to scan their passports to buy a bottle of whiskey or watch a pornographic film. In the meantime, AI determines your age based on your face or your browsing history. Did you just play Roblox with your kid? Forget about Pornhub. Many providers of web-related services take care of the uncertainty and place more and more content behind an age-gate. Meanwhile, the British are fleeing en masse to VPNs and suddenly all turn out to be residents of Tokelau.

This is not protection, this is humiliation.

‘Control dressed as care remains oppression.’

The lawsuit against Google: kneeling before Trump

Two hours before a historic verdict against Google, the entire antitrust case in Brussels was cancelled. Why? Because Europe is afraid of Trump, the self-proclaimed ‘deal maker’ and in fact the ROTUS : Rapist of the US.

The message is clear: Economic deals outweigh justice. We are being intimidated by a man who despises the European Union. If even Brussels capitulates, how can we still speak of digital sovereignty?

It is a shameless bow to power, wrapped up as pragmatism.

‘Whoever bows to tyrants for trade sells his soul at a discount.’

Open source, unless... always unless

Our government promised ‘open source unless’. But in practice, this means above all: Unless Microsoft offers something. The municipality of Hengelo is happily looking for an ‘AI device specialist Copilot’ to roll out Microsoft’s tools. Eight hours a week, two months. As if you are going to carefully guide a digital transformation at that pace.

What does this policy represent? Open source is the frame, closed source is the practice. And meanwhile, we are becoming more and more dependent on the same companies that we thought we were disengaging from.

‘Unless it is the poison by which policy dies.’

Tech knowledge in the House of Representatives: A vacuum of ignorance

The digital society is complete, everything runs through networks and apps. And yet digital experts are missing from the electoral lists. Barbara Kathmann from GroenLinks (a rare politician with real ICT experience) is moved from place 18 to 32.

Meanwhile, we make ministers with hardly a VMBO diploma responsible for education in the Netherlands. Chat control, data sovereignty, cyber security – topics of existential importance – are handled by people who have never seen a line of code before.

Those who do not understand the digital world cannot protect it.

“Political ignorance is not a mistake, it is a strategy.”

Sources:

• https://fightchatcontrol.eu/
• https://youtube.com/watch?v=_Ek9R4TXq7U
• https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/chatcontrol-weer-terug/
• https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/age-verification-legislation-is-tanking-web-traffic-to-sites-that-comply-and-rewarding-those-that-dont
• https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-google-antitrust-decision-halted-amid-us-trade-talks-trump-sefcovic-ribera/
• https://overheidzzp.nl/vacatures/ai-inrichtingspecialist-copilot/
• https://groenlinkspvda.nl/nieuws/barbara-kathmann-meest-digibewuste-tweede-kamerlid/