this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2025
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Chat Control didnt pass - they didnt even vote because they were afraid the result would be embarassing.

And we got told so many times, that EU now wants Chat Control. But it was a big fat lie.

EU is a democracy with different opinions, and when a small group of facists tries to read your chats, it does not represent the EU opinion.

But the whole media got you thinking so. Proving even on Lemmy, you and me are extremly prone to propaganda.

I quoted the article here with the news:

In a major breakthrough for the digital rights movement, the German government has refused to back the EU’s controversial Chat Control regulation yesterday after facing massive public pressure.

The government did not take a position on the proposal.

This blocks the required majority in the EU Council, derailing the plan to pass the surveillance law next week.

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[–] Mechaguana@programming.dev 5 points 1 hour ago

This is a terrible map, lumping neutral and opposed together? I am against chat control but ffs we don't need more misleading media with the internet already dying under waves of automated misinformation

[–] HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 5 points 2 hours ago

If that graphic is accurate, the media didn't "get" anyone. Seems some countries are actually gun-ho with the elimination of privacy, and its a movement that doesn't die with one failed vote.

Y'all are getting too fucking comfortable. Authoritarianism is always around the corner, even when things feel safe.

[–] frog_meister@lemmings.world 0 points 2 hours ago

What a retarded blog post.

[–] UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world 29 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Let's not protest terrible ideas to not embarrass facists (who may or may not be part of your/our government) or what's supposed to be the message here?

[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 10 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

The message here is: "don't believe when people start screaming that the EU is a fascist organisation that wants to subjugate the population".

Because there was A LOT of that online when Chat Control reared its head.

[–] scratchee@feddit.uk 6 points 10 hours ago

The difference between a fascist government and a democratic government can be distressingly thin, something we should all be aware of by now.

In this case, the EU has just proven it is currently on the right side of that divide. When extremely unpopular and authoritarian ideas were considered, the public felt able to voice their disapproval and the government felt they had to listen. That is a crucial step. Good for you all.

Sadly it likely will continue to require major work to keep the public on guard against future attempts like this one, but that’s life.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 54 points 16 hours ago

"Because there was push back and the EU decided to not go forward with a vote and be embarrassed, that means they never really wanted it at all" is one of the dumbest takes I've heard in a minute.

[–] ashughes@feddit.uk 70 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Not going to downvote this because the source article is useful, but OP’s take is ludicrous. Have we really reached the point where ALL media is propaganda?

It might be time to unplug society and plug it back in again.

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[–] artyom@piefed.social 72 points 18 hours ago (6 children)

Proving even on Lemmy, you and me are extremly prone to propaganda.

What? LOL Who do you think is pushing said "propaganda" to make people fear Chat Control unnecessarily?

And we got told so many times, that EU now wants Chat Control. But it was a big fat lie.

It was demonstrably not a lie. There were so many regions in support of it that it was dangerously close to passing.

I'm thinking this post is the propaganda. Really really lazy propaganda.

Don't worry, it'll be back again in a few months with a new coat of paint.

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[–] mrductape@eviltoast.org 19 points 15 hours ago

Troll post. Not falling for it. Bye.

[–] sauerkrautsaul@lemmus.org 80 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah... no.

Germany switched to opposed partially because people knew about it and contacted their representatives.

They contacted their representatives because they heard about it.. through the media.

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

I contacted my representatives in Spain and they gave two fucks about it, they still positioned as "in favour".

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

I contacted ~~my~~ representatives

These people clearly don't represent you.

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[–] Darkenfolk@sh.itjust.works 118 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

What kind of shit take is this?

Media made people aware of ongoing bullshit, people reacted and put pressure on their governments and somehow "media got to us"?

If anything it didn't pass because of media attention.

[–] Lfrith@lemmy.ca 32 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

Yeah, keeping the public in the dark so people against it aren't there to voice their opinion is how these like this get passed. Media attention to inform the public was a good thing.

[–] vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 19 hours ago

The kind of shit is called "ignoring dynamics and transient processes".

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[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 31 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Good news. But I'm downvoting that post. OP's living in reverse crying-wolf land, it seems.

First, Chat Control got further than previous attempts, with a bigger scope than ever. Being worried about that is not the result of propaganda.

Second, a lot of countries where on board, including Germany. Stuff changed after lot of feedback. You can be cynical all you want arguing that "people's voice don't matter" and saying there's no causality there, but people made themselves heard, and thing moved. There's no telling what would have happened if they didn't.

The proposal being ultimately shot down (this time!) does not mean, at ALL, that it wasn't a very dangerous one.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 5 points 12 hours ago

This post reminds me of a bunch of the "y2k scare was a hoax and a waste of money!" stuff from back in the day. With a bunch of people not realizing how much shit was fixed and what massive success it all was.

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[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 130 points 22 hours ago (12 children)

Isn't this how liberal democracies are supposed to work? How exactly did "the media" get the better of "us"?

[–] Iheartcheese@lemmy.world 52 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Good thing happens.

wAkE Up ShEePlE

[–] msage@programming.dev 2 points 12 hours ago

Good thing happens.

AnOtHeR oRpHaN eScApEd ThE oRpHaN cRuShInG mAcHiNe!!!

[–] lowleekun@ani.social 19 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I guess op was pessimistic as was i and that's the narrative that was/kind of pushed: It is going to come in one way or another. Instead of: It is not going to win and if it is we are not going to accept it.

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 1 points 5 hours ago

Yeah, buy... It really is a horrible idea. Any media outcry is warranted. Not like right-wingers spouting nonsense of eating cats and dogs...

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[–] xodoh74984@lemmy.world 155 points 23 hours ago

I believe it should be all over the media to ensure that it never passes. Democracy dies in darkness. Name and shame those who supported it.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

There's no media about the EU in USA. Nobody gives a crap. The "news" is all just fascist propaganda about how genocide is good and windmills cause tornados.

[–] monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago

Wait, have people been setting their windmills to the tornado mode? I always thought it odd to have that setting.

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Why in the world would this be talking about the USA?

[–] balance8873@lemmy.myserv.one 1 points 12 hours ago

Maybe like everyone else that poster was confused what the actual fuck OP was on about

[–] tomalley8342@lemmy.world 48 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

EU is a democracy with different opinions, and when a small group of facists tries to read your chats, it does not represent the EU opinion.

But the whole media got you thinking so. Proving even on Lemmy, you and me are extremly prone to propaganda.

This is what the EU democracy opinion was as of July 2024 BTW, before the "media got to you":

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[–] BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 34 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (5 children)

What a bizarre take. The EU council is backing down - they do want chat control but each time they propose it they meet resistance and back down. Then they come back again and try again.

To suggest the public reaction is overblown and media manipulation is bizarre. This is the 3rd or 4th time the EU has attempted to get this through. Just because they chickened out of a vote doesn't mean the politicians don't want this.

In a democracy votes happen. In the EU they keep resurrecting this terrible idea hoping to get it through but then backing away if they don't think they can win. They know if there was an actual vote it likely would put an end to his.

Also the EU council is the antithesis of a democracy. It is not directly elected - instead it's a club of the heads of states of all the countries in the EU. It just represents who happens to be in charge of each country, and gives equal weights to all those countries regardless of their population size. The EU has a Parliament but it's a fig leaf of democracy as so much power is held in bodies like the Council and the Commission (which is 1 post per state and horse traded not elected).

So please don't make this out as a sign that EU democracy works. If EI democracy was working properly they would have listened the first time, and they'd have moved to a directly elected system for the executive Council and commission years ago.

The EU gets too much of a free pass for "not being America" but it's got huge problems that need fixing to make it an actual democracy.

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[–] yakko@feddit.uk 57 points 23 hours ago

Are you mad that people got mad? Anger is not a subtle political instrument, a win is a win.

[–] exu@feditown.com 39 points 22 hours ago (7 children)

It didn't pass because people pressured Germany to reject it. If Germany had stayed undecided they would definitely have had a vote on Chat Control and potentially passed it.

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[–] Tetsuo@jlai.lu 21 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

We will have to fight Chat Control again and again...

Mass Surveillance should be blocked at the constitutional level in all countries.

On another point, my country, France is in a very deep political turmoil right now, so thanks for the robust response of our German friends that was definitely critical. I wish we could have mobilized better in France but we are struggling to just have a working government right now...

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[–] AnAnonymousApe@lemmy.ml 20 points 21 hours ago

What an idiotic take on the issue.

[–] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 23 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Would the outcome have been the same without people in the media repeatedly bringing this to everyone's attention? Probably not, because there would have been no public pressure against it, while the shadow groups that want this would have still been lobbying the politicians.

Something bad is going to happen.
Some people advocate to stop that bad thing.
Even more people are holding their clutches that the bad thing might happen.
Because of public pressure, action is undertaken to prevent the bad thing from happening.
Thanks to those efforts, the bad thing is successfully averted.

Some random person: that bad thing was never going to happen, look at all those gullible people who were panicking over nothing, we could have just done nothing and the outcome would have been the same.

Also known as the "preparedness paradox": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preparedness_paradox

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[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

The EU officials are not elected by the people. Some of them are absolute idiots. The people pushing for this will continue making adjustments to Chat Control until one of the countries changes sides. The media is absolutely right.

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[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 19 points 22 hours ago

I think you should never take these things lightly.

It's better to be too cautious than not cautious enough, especially since there are powerful interest groups that want mass surveillance.

The people don't want that, of course, but many politicians do, as evidenced by the fact that Palantir is being introduced in Germany, of all places, and completely illegally. This must be prevented, and the population has a role to play in this—for example, with petitions like this one, which already has more than 400,000 signatures: Trump software Palantir: Stop surveillance plans

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