The European Commission wants to start eavesdropping on all our private messages, photos/videos and conversations(!) via apps. To pressure the Netherlands and other countries to vote in favour, it posted illegal, misleading ads on Twitter/X. At election time. This is unheard of:
To put pressure on the countries and persuade them to vote 'yes', the European Commission placed these ads only in countries that did not want to vote for the law: Sweden, Belgium, Finland, Slovenia, Portugal, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands
The ads are illegal. Ads on X about legislation are "political content ads", which can only be placed in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Peru, the UK and the US. So not in the EU.
People interested in Julian Assange, "nexit", "brexit", Eurosceptic politicians, such as Victor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, and the German right-wing populist political party AfD, among others, and people interested in "Christian"(?), did not get to see these ads.
X's algorithm then went looking for groups of people without those interests but who were interested in the ads. Thus, it tried to create an uncritical clapping echo chamber (which did not really succeed).
This microtargeting on political and religious beliefs violates X's advertising policy, Art 26(3) of the Digital Services Act - which the Commission itself has to oversee and has been sending many angry letters about in recent days to Elon Musk - and probably also the GDPR.

@DannyMekic Political content in ads is not illegal, as legality is determined by governments.

Political content in ads is prohibited by Twitter's current ad policy.

@Jeremiah

Article 26(3) DSA prohibits commercials based on profiling using special categories of personal data. Special personal data include political opinions (article 9(1) GDPR).

Both the DSA and GDPR are regulations and not subject to member state implementation into national law.

So political ads are illegal, if they are offered on the basis of profiling.

@DannyMekic

@lightspeed @DannyMekic Correct, the targeting of these ads using the criteria later described in the thread is illegal under DSA 26(3).

However, this specific post and screenshot referred to 𝕏's policy. Political content ads are not prohibited by GDPR or DSA. It could have been legally run on 𝕏 if country-based targeting had been used.

@Jeremiah

Perhaps we're not on the same page here (which can be confusing on these social media platforms for both of us), but targeting terms *were* used to select for certain groups with certain political views. See the spreadsheet in the third post of the thread.

As you mention, country based selection wasn't used and with the targeting terms this ads campaign appears to have breached the DSA, agree?

@DannyMekic

@lightspeed @DannyMekic Yes, I agree these ads were illegal based on the targeting used, but this specific post implies the ads were illegal because they were political content ads. 𝕏's content policy for ads is an irrelevant detail.

The details about the ad targeting are later in the thread. This specific post was boosted and I did not see it was part of a thread until after commenting, which is why I edited my reply a minute later to clarify the content was not illegal.

@Jeremiah

Now that I look at your profile: do you know what the sentiment about this proposal by the European Commission is in Swedish society? Is it being discussed in the media or social media (in as far you understand Swedish)?

I would have expected this proposal to come from a conservative party, but the EU commissioner mostly involved is a social democrat.

@DannyMekic

@lightspeed @DannyMekic I wrote all of Sverige’s MEPs months ago. 0 responded.

Sverige generally is opposed to the proposal, but many still thinks something needs to be done about CSAM. https://tidningensyre.se/2023/22-september-2023/beslut-om-overvakningslagen-chat-control-skjuts-fram/

Few are smart enough to see CSAM is just a justification to make increased surveillance politically possible, not the actual problem being solved.

#svPol

Beslut om övervakningslagen Chat control skjuts fram

I morgon skulle Sveriges hållning till EU-kommissionens förslag kallat Chat control ha avgjorts i EU-nämnden, men nu ska frågan inte tas upp, enligt

Syre

@Jeremiah

I think it's somewhat the same in The Netherlands as well. Obviously, everybody thinks child abuse is bad, but this proposal isn't the solution and opens the door to who knows what.

At least a majority in Dutch parliament voted in favor of a parliamentary motion that calls upon government to vote against, but the Dutch government wants to ignore that motion and vote in favor with some changes.

@DannyMekic

@Jeremiah

And yes, it's allowed under the Dutch constitution for government to just ignore a parliamentary motion.

What makes it even more complicated, is that the Dutch minister of Justice and Safety who is allowed to vote in the European Council, is also running for leadership of her conservative-liberal party VVD in the upcoming election of Dutch parliament (November 22nd). One of the VVD's 'selling points' is 'crime fighting'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Party_for_Freedom_and_Democracy

@DannyMekic

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy - Wikipedia

@Jeremiah @lightspeed Dear Jeremiah, thanks for your feedback - I had to split my findings due to a character limit. If you prefer a more cohesive approach please read my article here: https://dannymekic.com/202310/undermining-democracy-the-european-commissions-controversial-push-for-digital-surveillance thanks 🙏
Undermining Democracy: The European Commission's Controversial Push for Digital Surveillance – Danny Mekić.

@Jeremiah
The EU commission creating targeted ads to swing EU decisions? If that is not illegal, it needs to be.

Political ads can be made by political parties, during election campaigns.

Political ads by governing bodies are propaganda and not okay. *targeted* disinformation campaigns by governing bodies to drum up support for planned laws are 1984-level dystopian bullshit, especially when they're about total communication surveillance.
@DannyMekic

@DannyMekic

Thanks for reporting this. Would you consider adding ALT text to make the screenshots (especially the most important ones) more accessible?

@EU_Commission

If true this is an outrage.

It is also mindblowingly stupid because file hashes can be used to identify ANY content shared digitally, potentially facilitating surveillance by an authoritarian state of ALL digital communication it doesn't approve of. For this to happen in Europe is unacceptable. Efforts to enable it by microtargeted ads are a subversion of democracy.

@DannyMekic
@GraceOSllvn

@DannyMekic
Do we know who exactly placed these ads?

This should have consequences, way beyond stopoing the ads. This kind of stuff should never happen.

The ads are also manipulative: black-and-white videos showing young girls, older men, obscure music and an ad text suggesting that anyone who is against the law is against "an end" to child abuse. The aim: to play on emotions and persuade people.
These persuasion tactics - manipulative advertisements, misleading statistics and microtargeting on beliefs and beliefs - are reminiscent of disinformation campaigns during the US elections and Brexit, are therefore illegal, and have no place in a democracy.
This Thursday 19/10, a vote will be held on this law, which is incompatible with the right to privacy and freedom of communication and the presumption of innocence, and which experts say will not stop child abuse at all, but will report many innocent citizens as suspects.
If the law is passed, no one will be able to communicate confidently and safely digitally. Not even children. With every conversation with your lawyer, doctor or a journalist, you run the risk that the scanner will 'go off', and the message will be shared with the EU.
What about criminals? Those delete WhatsApp, continue on the dark web, or encrypt files on their computer before sending them. An extra step that innocent people will not take, but protects criminals: with a simple step, the scanner will not able to scan the contents of the files
Equally important, this disinformation campaign and attempt to influence the opinions of member states and citizens, is completely unacceptable in a democratic state governed by the rule of law. If this has no consequences for the European Commission, where do we draw the line?
That is why I hope @dilanyesilgoz and her colleagues draw the line here. And follow Germany's earlier proposal: all controversial parts out of this law, so no telescreen from Orwell's book. No state camera and microphone listening in all people's phones and digital homes.
What else can we do to protect children? Mandatory reporting buttons in chat apps, a 24/7 helpline, scanning photos on hosting servers, cracking down harder on rogue hosting providers, more capacity for the police (who are already drowning in work!) and education.
Chat Control: The EU's CSAM scanner proposal

🇫🇷 French: Traduction du dossier Chat Control 2.0, stopchatcontrol.fr🇸🇪 Swedish: Chat Control 2.0🇩🇰 Danish: chatcontrol.dk🇳🇱 Dutch: Chatcontrole Table of contents: The End of the Privacy of Digital Correspondence and the End of Anonymous Communication Take action to stop Chat

Patrick Breyer

My X/Twitter account "@DannyMekic" has been censored after publishing a critical opinion piece on the European Commission.

No one at X/Twitter is responding, so I don't know why and by whom, and I don't know what to do. #help #day4

@DannyMekic Echt bizar! Als je slecht zou denken is het net alsof kritische reacties op adverteerders een shadowban opleveren. Of nog erger, dat adverteerders (Johansson bijv.) op de birdsite bepalen wie een shadowban moet krijgen…

@99bdc

Niet alleen het account van @DannyMekic kreeg een search shadow ban, maar ook die van @bert_hubert (tech expert), @marieke (journalist, zie een van de berichten hierboven) en @ArmandGirbes (hoogleraar intensive care geneeskunde aan Amsterdam UMC Armand) kregen een search shadow ban.

Allen hebben op een of andere manier aandacht gevraagd voor het onderwerp.

@DannyMekic Happy to see you on the Fediverse, would have linked to it earlier if my Mastodon search had showed your account (which is apparently from 2017...)
Maybe you have a shadowban here too? 😅

Back to seriousness; shadow bans on X last usually only days, and there's nothing you can do about them. They probably also have effect on the visibility of your tweets in the algorithmic "For you" tab, but I can't prove that. But by all means keep checking on searchability, because I never see numbers about shadow bans, and the last time I got one I didn't check what or when it started.

@stonehead Yes you are right. I am getting less views per like/report. Thanks for connecting 🙏

@DannyMekic
Following now too. May your Fediverse travels be interesting 😊

@stonehead

@DannyMekic goed je hier nu te kunnen volgen! (ik ben inmiddels een jaar geleden met twitter gestopt)

@DannyMekic
> [...] democratic state governed by the rule of law.

cf. spooner:

> What, then, is legislation? It is an assumption by one man, or body of men, of absolute, irresponsible, dominion over all other men whom they can subject to their power. It is the assumption by one man, or body of men, to subject all other men to their will and service. It is the assumption by one man, or body of men, of a right to abolish outright all the natural rights, all the natural liberty of other men; to make all other men their slaves; to arbitrarily dictate to all other men what they may, and may not, do; what they may, and may not, have; what they may, and may not, be. It is, in short, the assumption of a right to banish the principle of human rights, the principle of justice itself, from off the earth, and set up their own personal will, pleasure, and interest in its place. All this, and nothing less, is involved in the very idea that there can be any such thing as human legislation that is obligatory upon those upon whom it is imposed.

the whole construct is phony bullshit by autocrats anyway, what else to expect than autocratic laws.

@DannyMekic As do I being a political opponent of a powerful government. I will NOT use any app with a known backdoor in it and yes, Whatsapp is already banned on my hardware for being owned by Meta/FB.

Signal has vowed to exit markets that impose these laws. If Signal were to comply with this proposed law, it would be instantly forked as it is open source software. At most new servers in a non-censorship country that ignores foreign laws would be needed-or the forked system could be moved to Tor-only .onion data or even doing this on distributed servers.

Already the RIAA and MPAA have found distributed communications such as Bitorrent absolutely impossible to stop no matter what the law.

The politicians and the cops can take their client side scanning and stick it up their asses.

I am absolutely committed to refusing to permit any device or app that allows governmental scanning into my life without regard for anyone's laws or for convenience of communications. ANY app that allows this I will remove, if necessary over ADB for a force-removal.

I already remove all of Google Play and Google's Crap Apps.

Also note that just as porn sites can be accessed from ban countries or states via Tor or even a VPN, if Signal has to exit the EU, it is already possible to force all device connections (Signal included) through Tor. Tor would defeat the region blocks, and Signal would have zero motive to attempt to counter that, same as porn sites.

The electronic battlefield is an arena of no quarter asked/no quarter given combat for all the marbles and for keeps.

Even China's Great Firewall can be defeated, I doubt the EU will throw anywhere near as much money and people power at censorship as China.

Illegal content will fly over any wall they can build...

@DannyMekic This makes filing patents almost impossible. They are required to be kept confidential until filed.

@DannyMekic I'm reminded of this:

When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

@DannyMekic weaponized filter bubble attacks are a threat to democracies worldwide.

Democracy aims to build consensus, and weaponized filter bubbles ensure there's none.

@DannyMekic surely the proposal won’t be used disingenuously … oh wait they are already being disingenuous!

@DannyMekic

The EDPS organizes a seminar about the proposal on the 23rd at 13:00 CET, called '“The Point of No Return?”' but for some reason requires registration

Edit: The seminar is streamed as well.

https://edps.europa.eu/data-protection/our-work/publications/events/2023-10-23-edps-seminar-csam-point-no-return_en

@bert_hubert @xot @Frederik_Borgesius

@lightspeed @DannyMekic @xot @Frederik_Borgesius elsewhere they said you could attend online, btw.

@bert_hubert

Ah, I misread the deadline of October 15th. That only applies if you want to attent in person.

@DannyMekic @xot @Frederik_Borgesius

@Frederik_Borgesius

You're completely right! Sorry about the confusion, edited my comment (for the second time) and I'll grab a cup of ☕️

@DannyMekic

@lightspeed @DannyMekic More coffee is always a good idea! :)
@DannyMekic more privacy issues... wonder how they expect signal to comply... @Mer__edith
@DannyMekic They will do it, one way or another. EE is a fascist regime. Had been for a long time. It's just that now the masks are off (mainly because we are reaching the threshold were they have to support stuff that are obviously against democracy). And as always, security is the excuse.
@DannyMekic that seems to be in direct violation of the GDPR!!!
@DannyMekic I suddenly thought of this cartoon.
#Chatcontrol
@Lucseleventje @DannyMekic If only the ribbon on Sam's hat were blue, and the stars on it yellow 😉

@DannyMekic
I would like to mention 2 points.

1) Before voting I would like to have access to every message and file on PCs, phones, and other devices of those who promote this law.

2) I may agree only to total openness. They see my messages and files, and I see their ones.

@nk makes sense, especially considering the fact that these decision-makers work for you and are paid from your tax money. unfortunately, transparency increasingly seems to only go one way these days.