Mullvad VPNFeb 26

Today, the final negotiations on Chat Control 2.0 begin.

We hope the European Parliament stands firm against any wording that paves the way for mass surveillance and censorship. Cyprus, currently holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU, aims to conclude the negotiations by June.

A reminder of the corrupt backstory behind the Chat Control proposal and the involvement of Ashton Kutcher and his company Thorn: https://mullvad.net/why-privacy-matters/going-dark

Chat Control & Going Dark: The war on encryption is on the rise. Through a shady collaboration between the US and the EU.

After Snowden’s whistleblowing in 2013, large parts of the internet became encrypted, enabling private and secure communication. Not everyone has welcomed this change. Most notably, the FBI and other U.S. government agencies have fought what is often called the “crypto wars”, the war on encryption. In recent years, they have been joined by the European Commission. Under the slogan “what about the children,” they try to introduce total mass surveillance of all EU citizens — first through the proposed Chat Control legislation, and later via the Going Dark and ProtectEU initiatives. The goal is to legally mandate spy tools on every European smartphone and computer. The forces behind these efforts have turned out to be American tech companies and intelligence agencies.

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Show threadBogdan BuduroiuFeb 26
@mullvadnet Europe needs a post-EU future
Show threadSamuelJohnsonFeb 26
@budududuroiu @mullvadnet 100% wrong. The EU is governed democratically and it can make course corrections as needed as long as it remains democratic. There is no need to replace the EU.
Show threadBogdan Buduroiu

@samueljohnson @mullvadnet Von Der Leyen was literally plucked out of a relatively obscure (at the time) defense minister job directly to arguably the most important job in Europe. How? Basically a backroom deal between Merkel and Macron.

The European Parliament (who is the only elected body lmao) doesn't even have the power to legislate.

Democratic my ass

Feb 26 at 5:59pmWeb
Show threadSamuelJohnsonFeb 26

@budududuroiu @mullvadnet Oh. Europeans don't have direct democracy because their democratically elected governments choose not to have one and you think it's a bad idea, got it.

You're wrong about the European Parliament. You'd know this if you understood how the Trilogue Process works in practice. And vDL's nomination required parliamentary approval. And parliament can fire her and the entire Commission.

Try being realistic.

Show threadBogdan BuduroiuFeb 26

@samueljohnson @mullvadnet
Please, enlighten me about how The Trilogue works lmaooo. Even the most pro-EU policy nuts and outlets critique it as an abomination, a closed, informal negotiation that produces pre-agreed texts presented to the full Parliament for rubber-stamping.

My critique isn't about direct democracy, it's that Parliament is a rubber stamp. In normal parliamentary democracy, the legislature's primary function is to scrutinise executive power. What you get is a system where the formally democratic body (Parliament) has been procedurally marginalized by an informal workaround (Trilogue) that gives the most consequential institutional power (agenda setting) to a body unaccountable to it's constituents (the Commission).

Parliament can't fire HER, Parliament can force the whole Commission to resign by a vote of no confidence, which never happened btw because it triggers a political crisis with no clear resolution path.