The Belgian Council presidency seems set to greenlight Chat Control on Wednesday 19 June.
This confirms fears: the proponents of Chat Control want to exploit the situation after the European Elections, in which there is less public attention and the European Parliament is not yet constituted.
If Chat Control makes it through the Council now, there is a risk that the Parliament in its new composition will not fight as fiercely as before and surrender our previous wins.
Timeline
On Thursday, 13 June, ministers were set to debate a progress report. (Find a recording here) The Belgian Council presidency announced that they will present a new compromise proposal afterwards. According to documents leaked by netzpolitik.org, the session to seek an agreement on it will already take place on Wednesday, 19 June.
Won’t predators just use something else such as readily available open source software, reducing this legislation to a mass surveillance bill to spy on and control regular citizens?
How isn’t this anything more than a license to invade your privacy on this weak-ass premise that maybe you’re a criminal and stupid enough to use Facebook Messenger (or similar)?
It’s only the latest gambit in a world-wide effort (seemingly led by the five eyes) to undermine and eliminate any widespread use of end-to-end encryption so that they can continue spying on everyone.