Stone, Agent

Chat Control trilogue negotiations to start 9 December – the EU Commission continues to spread misinformation about the Chat Control proposal. Today, EU Commissioner Magnus Brunner visited the European Parliament and announced that the trilogue negotiations on Chat Control will begin next week, on 9 December, with the ambition of being completed before April 2026. During the questions from the MEPs, it was obvious that Magnus Brunner is following in the exact footsteps of former Commissioner Ylva Johansson. He stated that he is not satisfied with the Council’s compromise proposal; in his view, the scanning does not go far enough. During the questions from the MEPs, Brunner continued to spread the Commission’s Chat Control misinformation. Markéta Gregorová, from the Czech Pirate Party, compared the Commission’s proposal to the police opening all envelopes in the physical world and asked Brunner a direct question: “Since both the Parliament and the Council have decided to question your approach (no mandatory scanning), will you play an honest broker in the negotiations in the upcoming trilogues or will you be pushing for more scanning?” Magnus Brunner: “I think our scanning suggestion was quite … we were suggesting a targeted scanning. I don’t quite understand … is that really what you are saying, that you want to compare protecting our children to privacy of opening up envelopes?” Markéta Gregorová: “That’s what’s in your proposal.” Magnus Brunner: “First of all, we must protect our children from this harm, to be honest, there are criminals, I think we have to do everything to protect them, I don’t quite understand why you sort of always balance … in this case I’m really clear, our first of all priority is to protect our children from this abuse. We don’t have to agree on everything. Me as a father … it’s incredible, what’s happening in this world. It’s not about Chat Control, it’s a complete misunderstanding, no it’s not about Chat Control it’s about protecting our children and it’s about fighting against pedophiles, that’s what it’s about. That’s my approach, it’s not about open envelopes or Chat Control.” Magnus Brunner follows the Commission’s tradition of just answering “what about the children” on every question, and continues to spread the misinformation that Chat Control is targeted scanning. Birgit Sippel, from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, also asked for figures never mentioned in the discussion: “There’s one figure I didn’t hear, and that’s just how many children have been saved from these situations of abuse, because of digital investigations, how many have been protected from these cases of abuse? I haven’t found any figures on that." Magnus Brunner: “On identified victims, I don’t have any specific figures.” Since Chat Control has been up for discussion for almost four years now, it would be remarkable if Magnus Brunner did not understand what his own commission is proposing. Therefore, the only plausible explanation is that he is consciously following in Ylva Johansson’s footsteps, striving to mislead the EU population. It seems certain that he, in the event of a “failed” Chat Control negotiation, will continue working toward mandatory mass surveillance through the ProtectEU initiative. We remind once again of the corrupt origins of Chat Control and what truly lies behind the legislative proposal: mullvad.net/blog/mullvad-vpn… The European Commission will not be an honest party when they lead the negotiations next week. We can only hope that the Parliament stands firm. Javier Zarzalejos, who is the chairman of LIBE (Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs) in the Parliament, was straightforward on the Parliament’s position: ”The proposition from the Commission was very problematic in some areas. All political groups finally supported report of the Parliament and we will to the trilogues with such strong mandate of the Parliament.”