CBACK strongly opposes EU Chat Control

The EU is currently working on a regulation known under the name "Chat Control". Officially, it is said to serve the protection of children, but in reality, it threatens the privacy, freedom of expression, and digital security of all people in Europe.

CBACK strongly opposes these plans.

Originally, the vote on Chat Control was scheduled to take place in October. However, after it became clear that numerous citizens, organizations, and companies were strongly against these plans and very vocal about that, the decision was postponed at short notice. A new vote is now planned for December – possibly under a different name or slightly altered wording. This behavior appears not only non-transparent but also undemocratic: Critical issues are deliberately shifted to a time when many people are distracted by holidays and the end of the year. It looks like a strategy to obscure the plans from public attention. Especially considering that while the German governing party claims to take a critical stance and even the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) warns of the dangers of such measures, the Chancellor simultaneously praises similar plans under a new name as necessary tools. It’s a tactic that was already used in a similar way during the introduction of the so-called "upload filters" to minimize public protest.

Why Chat Control is dangerous

• No real child protection: The fight against child abuse takes place in completely different areas – for example, on specific platforms or in the dark web. Private chats or encrypted messages between law-abiding citizens are not part of this. The argument of child protection is being used as a pretext to legitimize deep surveillance measures.
  
  
• Attack on encryption: In order to scan messages, providers would have to implement security-reducing mechanisms in their systems. This weakens encryption and opens the door for abuse – by criminals as well as by authorities.
  
  
• General suspicion against everyone: Every message, every photo, every voice note could be scanned – without any cause or judicial order. This places all citizens under general suspicion and is incompatible with the presumption of innocence.
  
  
• Violation of digital correspondence secrecy: What used to be sealed in a letter could soon be read and analyzed by machines. This would effectively abolish one of the cornerstones of our democracy.
  
  
• Error-prone algorithms: Automated detection systems can misinterpret harmless content, such as family photos or private messages, as suspicious – with serious consequences for innocent people.
  
  
• Double standards: While politicians, authorities, and the military would deliberately be exempted from such surveillance measures (and could, for example, continue to delete illegal text messages without scrutiny), the general public would be fully monitored. This contradicts any notion of equal treatment.
  
  
• Threat to freedom of expression: Once large-scale scanning becomes established, it’s only a matter of time before the same technology is used for other purposes – such as controlling political opinions or social debates.
  
  

Our position

At CBACK, we stand for digital self-determination. Our software will never include functions that spy on our users’ private data or messages. Anyone using, for example, the CBACK Forum remains fully in control of their own content and data on their own web space. This will not change in the future. Even we, as the developers, have no access to non-public areas of your forums – and that’s exactly how it should be.

What you can do

Get informed, share knowledge, and take a stand. Support the initiative fightchatcontrol.eu – there you’ll find ways to take action and stay up to date on this issue. Freedom of expression and fundamental rights are the foundation of a free society.
Let’s make sure they continue to exist in the digital world as well. Image by Dan Nelson, Pixabay