I hate this framing. They don't "THREATEN" to leave europe.
Europe is about to change laws that makes their product illegal.
this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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So now where will Signal go ?
Let's collectively fund an island where we can host Signal, Tor nodes and ThePirateBay in international waters.
You kid but this has been thought of / done; pirates or other boats will board them and shoot them down/sink them/loot them.
Just like old times
If the law is implemented, I would selfhost my own chat server. I don't see this as Signal fault.
But everybody can`t selfhost. That is a problem I am struggling with.
I am now sure what I would do about email, I assume it is affected as well?
I already self host my own matrix server. Everybody can't do that, but everybody can use someone's matrix server. They can't shut it down because it's decentralised and federated. It would theoretically be illegal to use but I don't see how they would be able to stop it.
Email with PGP would then also be illegal but impossible to effectively stop. That's why the whole discussion is so stupid. It only hurts the normies. Criminals and tech savvy people will find a way around it and still use encryption without mandated backdoors.
If the law is implemented I will self host my own signal proxy and distribute patched apps to those in need
I looked into signal servers some years ago and found nothing, are you meaning like tunnel things to another country?
Yes, just to bypass any blocking
That's actually a smart idea!
Not more legal or something (if that stupid laws becomes reality) I guess but who cares ☺️.
maybe because of this headline some more politicians change their minds
I hope more follow, would be funny if "all chat apps have to include a back door" leads to "there are no official chat apps"
Do you really think Meta would ignore the opportunity to both be the default option And have justification to read users' messages?
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Separate airgapped device running an encryption app. Type text on it, it spits out a ciphertext, then, use internet connected device to scan the ciphertext, OCR*, then send to target receipient, they also use this same airgap encryption device and they OCR, then decrypt using their key.
*Instead of OCR, you could also use a QR code to have error correction
Tell me how they can ban this? Anyone using a raspberry pi with a battery and touch display attached into one compact thing, is a criminal?
What if we just start using One Time Pad? Can they ban that?
Steganography?
Like seriously, how do you even stop "criminals" using steganography?
So, to Big Gov, here's my question: Are you gonna ban talking to other people becuause criminals also talk to other people?
They don't care about your messages, they don't care about terrorists or pedophiles.
They do care about the general population, and wants to control it. That's what this is all about. The hard right wants to have effective tools to slam down on dissent when they get in power.
A game as old as humanity.
Shameless plug, because I'm trying to do my part ☺️ : Tenfingers sharing
Haha! Do it if the EU does not give up on their Orwellian control!
Wait, I'm in the EU and I use Signal!
Why are so many European countries doing this? Why the sudden push for chat control and internet restriction laws?
It's understandable from law enforcement perspective that it's important to snoop on actual criminal communications. The EU has pretty reasonable measures and good at cracking down on continental-wide criminal activities. However, can we trust authorities that they won't over reach with the chat control and violate privacy and freedom of speech? Like, come on, nothing good ever came from spying on communications. Catching criminals and/or terrorists is a convenient excuse to spy on dissidents.
We've seen it happen in America with the PATRIOT Act. People dismissed the opposition to it with "nothing to hide" thought terminating cliche, or accuse you of pedophile or terrorist for not wanting spying on communications. Then twenty years later, Americans have a fascist government who allowed a corporate asshole to steal information from the federal government. And those information will be used for surveillance capitalism. The same will happen to us in the EU if we don't push back hard on this Orwellian desires of politicians.
Basically, but what you forget is that Signal is also the standard for every Politician for their group chats because it's secure, so the idea that they might lose their secure, leak-free* form of communication should worry MEPs and other politicians into taking action. Will it? I don't know, politicians are very stupid when it comes to tech it seems.
* Baring screenshots
politicians are very stupid when it comes to tech it seems.
They are so so so stupid, about this.
There will be so much blackmail and ruined political careers if these backdoors get installed.
A backdoor is never solely used by the folks one might hope would use it.
I'm sure some poor Civil Servant has had to sit one of them down and explain why it's a bad idea to them, only be told to stfu with the most stupid excuse ever, leading to them putting their head in their hands and sobbing.
There's an explicit clause that exempts politicians from the ban. They get privacy because they need it, but nobody else does.
That's completely backwards. The the extent we give people authority, they must also accept monitoring, so we know they aren't abusing that authority.
Ooh how convenient.
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Signal CEO Whittaker said that in the worst case scenario, they would work with partners and the community to see if they could find ways to circumvent these rules. Signal also did this when the app was blocked in Russia or Iran. "But ultimately, we would leave the market before we had to comply with dangerous laws like these."
This is why we need the ability to sideload apps.
I have become convinced by Cory Doctorow's (tech writer and inventor of the term "enshittification") argument that the fact that we're even discussing this in terms of "sideloading" is a massive win for tech companies. We used to just call that "installing software" but now for some reason because it's on a phone it's something completely weird and different that needs a different term. It's completely absurd to me that we as a society have become so accustomed to not being able to control our own devices, to the point of even debating whether or not we should be allowed to install our own software on our own computers "for safety." It should be blatantly obvious that this is all just corporate greed and yet the general public can't or refuses to see it.
There are groups to support:
And in the UK:
Some political groups are better than others, but most politicians are clueless.
The key is to get muggles to understand we are living in Technofeudalism and why being digital serfs is bad. The problem is ineffective competition law and that monopolies are bad. That monopolies and standards are not the same thing. I have no idea how. Most people are just naturally compliant and unquestioning of something seemingly so abstract.
In the 80's (I'm that old), many home computers came with the programming manual, and the impetus was to learn to code and run your programs on your own device. Even with Android it's not especially hard (with LLM's even less so than it used to be) to download Android Studio, throw some shit onto the screen, hit build, and run your own helper app or whatever ~~sideloaded~~ installed via usb cable (or wirelessly) on your own device.
In certain cases (cars, health related hw etc.) I get why it's probably for the best if the user is not supposed to mod their device outside preinstalled sw's preferences/settings. But when it comes to computers (i.e. smartphones, laptops, tablets, tv boxes etc.) I fully agree with Cory here. Such a shame everything must go to shit.
TBH I was confused when I came across the term "sideloading" for the first few times because I thought it was something new. Part of the plan I guess. Damn.
Most of the general public buries their head in the sand. They are convinced being politically involved is either a waste of time or makes you crazy.
Tbf both are true.
Source: I have gone mad and everything has only become worse.
That means nothing when the servers stop taking EU traffic. I get your point, but the real solution here is putting a bullet (double tap) in Chat Control, once and for all.
putting a bullet (double tap) in Chat Control,
Yes, please.
once and for all.
LOL, no. They'll come back again with some other bullshit to Save the Children!™, it's a never-ending whack-a-mole.
We need to get the right to privacy and control over our own devices enshrined as fundamental rights, like so many other rights the EU protects.
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