Thursday, August 7, 2025

EU May Soon Start Scanning ALL Private Messages – HotAir

August 7, 2025
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EU May Soon Start Scanning ALL Private Messages – HotAir
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The European Union’s headlong rush into soft totalitarianism continues apace. 

Drooling with envy over China’s social credit system, European powers are constantly looking for ways to restrict the ability to speak privately with one another. 





France flipped to support. 19 of 27 member states are now backing it. 

Germany’s undecided – but if Berlin folds, mass surveillance becomes law by mid-October.

The excuse? Stopping CSAM.

The reality? Total algorithmic surveillance and the end of private messaging in Europe.

Speaking publicly about any dissent with the powers-that-be is already banned in many instances, so it’s on to the new frontier of private messaging. Throw in digital currency, the Digital Services Act, and more stringent Net Zero policies, and everybody’s ability to live a private life free from bureaucrats’ control over any aspect will have disappeared. 

As with any policy to eliminate privacy protections, there is a plausibly good excuse for doing so. Preventing terrorism, tracking down child sex abuse materials, and fighting crime all sound like important goals. And the more power you give the government to achieve these goals, the better they can do so. 





Except…this is how police states are made. There is a reason why we have a Fourth Amendment–it’s to keep the government out of our private spaces unless they have a demonstrable reason to get into them. As you can see already with Europe’s fight against “hate speech,” any power you give the government will be quickly abused and distorted to serve the regime. 

The European fascists…I mean “liberal” governments…have been salivating over this potential power for three years, but holdouts have been throwing sand into the gears. But that may no longer be the case. 

The European Union is still wrestling with a controversial plan that would turn private messaging services into surveillance tools. For over three years, talks have stalled over whether providers should be forced to scan every user’s messages for possible illegal material and forward anything suspicious to law enforcement.

The European Commission is still pushing for a universal scanning requirement.

In contrast, the European Parliament insists any checks should apply only to unencrypted messages from people already under suspicion. Attempts to strike a deal have repeatedly fallen apart, with Poland the latest presidency to walk away without an agreement.

July brought a change in leadership of the Council of the EU, with Denmark stepping in and putting chat scanning back at the top of the legislative pile. Copenhagen wants this handled as a priority and wasted no time tabling a new draft on its very first day in charge.





You may recall that the French government arrested and held Telegram’s CEO last August and extorted the means of cracking Telegram’s encryption before they let him go. It was a bold totalitarian move to coerce compliance, and they got away with it. 

It’s all about speech control. It is about extending the censorship state into every corner of our lives under the guise of “protecting” citizens from wrongthink. 

There are rarely people in power who will openly admit to working to suppress their populations merely to increase their own power. They always have explanations that sound plausible for why they are taking freedoms away. 





It’s always for our own good. 

And those explanations are almost always bunkum. People in power will always be tempted to abuse it, even in the best systems of government. It is the nature of the beast. 

Europe and much of the Anglosphere have abandoned the project of restraining government power. They admire Xi Jinping’s methods. 

Thomas Friedman, the “centrist” New York Times columnist, often spoke lovingly of China’s system of government. Sure, he didn’t approve of BAD things the Chinese leaders often did, but he sure loved that they could DO them. He often spoke about being “China for a Day.” Here’s a randomly chosen sample:

One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. 

This is the view of the elite in our society. Democracy and freedom hamstring enlightened leaders, and free speech is such a drag on their ability to just GET THINGS DONE. 

Joe Biden tried to catch up to Europe’s mad rush to totalitarian government, and almost succeeded. We are still cleaning up that mess. 





Europe is still moving fast, so the leadership can secure its leadership indefinitely and keep those pesky freedom advocates out of power. 

The UK is throwing people in jail for opposing illegal migration, Germany is doing dawn raids on people who engage in wrongspeak, the EU is pushing to read every private message, and all of these governments are messing around in EU elections to shut out dissenters. 

This is the future of the West, at least if they get  their way. 


  • Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.

Help us continue to report on the administration’s peace through strength foreign policy and its successes. Join Hot Air VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.





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