6 ms·

EU countries move to revive temporary message-scanning regime

57 points by latexr 4mo ago

HelloUsername 4mo ago
Related: "EU to legislate about Chat Control behind closed doors" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48707719 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48707719 28-06-2026 380 comments
StefanBatory 4mo ago
I think that war with Russia is approaching and they know that Putin will do something; thus while it's done under the oretense of saving the children, it's for wartime...
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]
- apetrov 4mo ago
  Right. Russia has been grinding for 50km in eastern Ukraine for 4 years, and now suddenly it wants to attack an alliance 7x its population and 20x its economy. It sounds like yet another excuse to erode liberty than an actual threat to the west.
  - DaSHacka 4mo ago
    Sounds like Russia is Europe's Iran. They're 2 weeks away from having ~~nuclear weapons~~ invading Europe! Sorry, we need to scan all of your communications to prepare for this looming threat.
    - petertodd 4mo ago
      Iran has been "2 weeks" away from having nuclear weapons repeatedly. Each time they get especially close we bomb and/or sabotage them to undo their progress. Russia is equally a genuine threat to the west. A threat we can easily fix by helping Ukraine bomb them into economic collapse.
      - DaSHacka 4mo ago
        I honestly don't see it. I'm far more wary of China than Russia. Russia can't even take Ukraine, they're experiencing their own version of the U.S. Vietnam catastrophe.
  - StefanBatory 4mo ago
    Scanning convos for leaks; spies, and so on.
    - subscribed 4mo ago
      Oh, okay, so how you are planning on keeping spies and so on on the platforms that will implement the scanning?
      - StefanBatory 4mo ago
        I am not saying I agree with that - just what the line thought of the folks at top may be.
        subscribed 4mo ago
        Oh, right, indeed "are you a terrorist? " was always next to "think of the children!"
  - petertodd 4mo ago
    If Ukraine loses, Russia will be in a good position to attack the west because they think we're cowards who won't actually respond to, e.g., Estonia getting invaded. Also, it's misleading to say that Ukraine is 1/20th the economy: Ukraine is supported by NATO. Of course, this is all irrelevant to the discussion around chat control: authoritarians want authority.
- tomasphan 4mo ago
  Highly suggest you read 1984.
pyuser583 4mo ago
I say this again and again in various places - something wise needs to be done about children and the internet. Previous interventions have failed miserably. I think the solution is giving parents maximum power: create an immutable record of browsing history - down to the request/response; and, if desired, white listing at ISP account level. I’ve had to deal with a child seeking out toxic materials - although fortunately not the kind discussed here. Conventional blocking software fails because the worst parts aren’t bad domains but mixed domains - Reddit, for example. If you’re going to enact laws, enact laws that require mixed domains to not frustrate blocking software - Reddit does this. If it detects a blocker it throws up a fake subreddit, so you have no idea what your kid tried to access. Messaging is fairly easy to manage - delete the messaging apps. Also the immutability and white listing would do great things there too. But when the domain spitting out toxic content is Google Classroom - there’s nothing you can do. I don’t want to dig on this too hard, but safe harbor rules probably shouldn’t apply when the content comes from or to minors. The idea behind safe harbor is to effectively route lawsuits to the person who created the content, not to the platform hosting it. But if it’s routing legal liability to a minor who cannot be sued - that doesn’t seem effective. Also consumer protection laws that require companies that offer child protection features to have some kind of liability if they are merely performative. Many companies will stop offering, which is fine, because a failing system is far worse than no system.
- Bjartr 4mo ago
  One thing I've seen discussed that throws a wrinkle in all of this is the question of whether or not a parent can have control over what their kid can see when they're at a friend's house, and if the answer is no, does that mean something more global like mandatory age verification is necessary to ensure they are still protected. The argument I've seen goes that even if a parent has complete control over what is available on their home network and on their children's devices, the fact that another parent in their children's friend group does not enforce the same means in practice the amount of control a parent can exert on this problem is effectively zero and a higher-level approach to eradicate this loophole is necessary. I don't think I agree with that, but that's the strongest case I've come across for implementing such policies. What I think it really calls for though is a solution in the space of community and communication rather than direct governmental intervention.
microgpt 4mo ago
This is the fifth time they've done so, or?
- subscribed 4mo ago
  That's infuriating. I think more and more EU member countries citizens start noticing it and are thinking that the regime change might be necessary, because this is just ridiculous.
  - microgpt 4mo ago
    The EU has multiple parts. One of them proposes laws written in secret by elite politicians and one of them accepts or rejects them by a representative democracy. They have been looping on chat control for a while now where the council says they want to read all private messages and the parliament says no fuck off and the council comes back with a slightly different proposal and the parliament says no fuck off and ... It becomes worrying if they start getting closer to passing the parliament.
    - subscribed 4mo ago
      I know there's many part to the "EU". It's worrying the elected politicians still didn't start asking "what the hell is this, enough with wasting time and money", and that the commission and similar bodies is still cheeky enough to keep doind this kind of stuff.
hulitu 4mo ago
Be a good citizen. Scan your neighbour's messages today. If you see, hear or feel something suspicious, please fill the AI assisted online form. Think about the future of your children and about your security. We all must protect democracy.

57 points by latexr 4mo ago

Related: "EU to legislate about Chat Control behind closed doors" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48707719 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48707719 28-06-2026 380 comments

StefanBatory 4mo ago

I think that war with Russia is approaching and they know that Putin will do something; thus while it's done under the oretense of saving the children, it's for wartime...

deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
apetrov 4mo ago
Right. Russia has been grinding for 50km in eastern Ukraine for 4 years, and now suddenly it wants to attack an alliance 7x its population and 20x its economy. It sounds like yet another excuse to erode liberty than an actual threat to the west.
- DaSHacka 4mo ago
  Sounds like Russia is Europe's Iran. They're 2 weeks away from having ~~nuclear weapons~~ invading Europe! Sorry, we need to scan all of your communications to prepare for this looming threat.
  - petertodd 4mo ago
    Iran has been "2 weeks" away from having nuclear weapons repeatedly. Each time they get especially close we bomb and/or sabotage them to undo their progress. Russia is equally a genuine threat to the west. A threat we can easily fix by helping Ukraine bomb them into economic collapse.
    - DaSHacka 4mo ago
      I honestly don't see it. I'm far more wary of China than Russia. Russia can't even take Ukraine, they're experiencing their own version of the U.S. Vietnam catastrophe.
- StefanBatory 4mo ago
  Scanning convos for leaks; spies, and so on.
  - subscribed 4mo ago
    Oh, okay, so how you are planning on keeping spies and so on on the platforms that will implement the scanning?
    - StefanBatory 4mo ago
      I am not saying I agree with that - just what the line thought of the folks at top may be.
      - subscribed 4mo ago
        Oh, right, indeed "are you a terrorist? " was always next to "think of the children!"
- petertodd 4mo ago
  If Ukraine loses, Russia will be in a good position to attack the west because they think we're cowards who won't actually respond to, e.g., Estonia getting invaded. Also, it's misleading to say that Ukraine is 1/20th the economy: Ukraine is supported by NATO. Of course, this is all irrelevant to the discussion around chat control: authoritarians want authority.
tomasphan 4mo ago
Highly suggest you read 1984.

pyuser583 4mo ago

I say this again and again in various places - something wise needs to be done about children and the internet. Previous interventions have failed miserably. I think the solution is giving parents maximum power: create an immutable record of browsing history - down to the request/response; and, if desired, white listing at ISP account level. I’ve had to deal with a child seeking out toxic materials - although fortunately not the kind discussed here. Conventional blocking software fails because the worst parts aren’t bad domains but mixed domains - Reddit, for example. If you’re going to enact laws, enact laws that require mixed domains to not frustrate blocking software - Reddit does this. If it detects a blocker it throws up a fake subreddit, so you have no idea what your kid tried to access. Messaging is fairly easy to manage - delete the messaging apps. Also the immutability and white listing would do great things there too. But when the domain spitting out toxic content is Google Classroom - there’s nothing you can do. I don’t want to dig on this too hard, but safe harbor rules probably shouldn’t apply when the content comes from or to minors. The idea behind safe harbor is to effectively route lawsuits to the person who created the content, not to the platform hosting it. But if it’s routing legal liability to a minor who cannot be sued - that doesn’t seem effective. Also consumer protection laws that require companies that offer child protection features to have some kind of liability if they are merely performative. Many companies will stop offering, which is fine, because a failing system is far worse than no system.

Bjartr 4mo ago
One thing I've seen discussed that throws a wrinkle in all of this is the question of whether or not a parent can have control over what their kid can see when they're at a friend's house, and if the answer is no, does that mean something more global like mandatory age verification is necessary to ensure they are still protected. The argument I've seen goes that even if a parent has complete control over what is available on their home network and on their children's devices, the fact that another parent in their children's friend group does not enforce the same means in practice the amount of control a parent can exert on this problem is effectively zero and a higher-level approach to eradicate this loophole is necessary. I don't think I agree with that, but that's the strongest case I've come across for implementing such policies. What I think it really calls for though is a solution in the space of community and communication rather than direct governmental intervention.

microgpt 4mo ago

This is the fifth time they've done so, or?

subscribed 4mo ago
That's infuriating. I think more and more EU member countries citizens start noticing it and are thinking that the regime change might be necessary, because this is just ridiculous.
- microgpt 4mo ago
  The EU has multiple parts. One of them proposes laws written in secret by elite politicians and one of them accepts or rejects them by a representative democracy. They have been looping on chat control for a while now where the council says they want to read all private messages and the parliament says no fuck off and the council comes back with a slightly different proposal and the parliament says no fuck off and ... It becomes worrying if they start getting closer to passing the parliament.
  - subscribed 4mo ago
    I know there's many part to the "EU". It's worrying the elected politicians still didn't start asking "what the hell is this, enough with wasting time and money", and that the commission and similar bodies is still cheeky enough to keep doind this kind of stuff.

hulitu 4mo ago

Be a good citizen. Scan your neighbour's messages today. If you see, hear or feel something suspicious, please fill the AI assisted online form. Think about the future of your children and about your security. We all must protect democracy.